Putin to Russian arms manufacturers: upgrade arms, deliver faster

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
23 Dec 2022 23:57

Russian President Vladimir Putin demands weapons producers in the country to increase their performance.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, center, Tula Region governor Alexei Dyumin, left, and Alexei Visloguzov, general director of Shcheglovsky Val visit the Defense Company Shcheglovsky Val inspecting military products in Tula, Russia, Friday, Dec. 23, 2022 (Russian Presidential Press Office, Sputnik Pool Photo via AP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the heads of the defence industry to scale up their efforts of producing weapons and other military equipment to quickly supply the Russian forces fighting on the Ukraine fronts.

Putin's statement came during a visit to Tula, a center for weapons production.

"The most important key task of our military-industrial complex is to provide our units and frontline forces with everything they need: weapons, equipment, ammunition, and gear in the necessary quantities and of the right quality in the shortest possible timeframes," he said.

"It's also important to perfect and significantly improve the technical characteristics of weapons and equipment for our fighters based on the combat experience we have gained."

Earlier this week, the Russian president stated that the military had to retain lessons taken from the war in Ukraine and work on fixing them, noting that he will provide full support for the army to achieve the goals of the war in Ukraine.

Putin also requested that the defence industry chiefs deliver suggestions on how to fix several unspecified issues and asked that the specialists in the industry communicated directly with army units on the front line to keep upgrading the weapons and military equipment as needed.

Russian TASS news outlet cited a trade union leader in the Urals region stating that in the previous week, companies that are responsible for defense orders had to push their workers for a 6-day week and up to 12-hour shifts.

According to the Zvezda news channel, Minister of Defence Sergei Shoigu made a visit to the Kalashnikov weapons factory in Izhevsk on Friday and told the head of the facility that the government would "significantly increase" purchases from the factory in 2023.