The Ministry of Defense named the number of contractors in the army

 More than 640 thousand people serve in the Russian army under contract. Earlier, President Vladimir Putin said that this year more than 480 thousand contracts were signed.

For the first time since the beginning of the special military operation, the Ministry of Defense named the number of employees in the armed forces under contract. In total, more than 640 thousand people perform contract service, according to the materials of the Ministry of Defense "Army in figures - 2023".

The military department also said that more than 40 thousand people took part in the military operation as part of the BARS detachments. More than 7,000 are now performing combat missions in the military operation zone.

BARS was established in 2015 in accordance with Vladimir Putin's decree on the creation of a mobilization reserve of the armed forces. Representatives of Cossack associations also joined it. The largest number of volunteers went there from Krasnodar Krai and Rostov region (more than 6.5 thousand), according to the materials of the Ministry of Defense.

In early December, Deputy Head of the Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said that in the first 11 months of the year, more than 452 thousand people were accepted for military service under contract.

Vladimir Putin said on December 14 that Russia had launched a broad campaign to attract volunteers to the troops. 486,000 troops have already been recruited, although the plan was 412 thousand, and the flow of contractors and volunteers is not decreasing. "A thousand and a half every day throughout the country," the president said.