“Russia is on track to command the largest military on the continent,” US Army Gen. Christopher Cavoli told Congress.
BUSINESS INSIDER
Russia’s armed forces have grown larger and not dwindled during its war in Ukraine, a top US general said on Wednesday.
“The army is actually now larger — by 15 percent — than it was when it invaded Ukraine,” US Army Gen. Christopher Cavoli, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, told the House Armed Services Committee in a hearing.
“Over the past year, Russia increased its front-line troop strength from 360,000 to 470,000,” Cavoli continued, adding that the bolstered numbers stemmed from Russia raising its conscription age from 27 to 30.
The increase, Cavoli said, meant that Russia was able to enlarge “the pool of available military conscripts by 2 million for years to come.”
“In sum, Russia is on track to command the largest military on the continent,” Cavoli said in his opening statement to Congress.
“Regardless of the outcome of the war in Ukraine, Russia will be larger, more lethal, and angrier with the West than when it invaded,” he added.
Representatives for Russia’s defense ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider sent outside regular business hours.
Cavoli isn’t the first US official to have highlighted the threat posed by a resurgent Russia.
Last week, Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said that Russia has “almost completely” restored its military after sustaining heavy losses in Ukraine.
