Despite all the catastrophic wartime defeats, Russia's president praises the strength of his armed forces. Putin is equipping his army with hypersonic missiles, ships and tanks, among other things. At the inauguration of new military equipment, he announces further investments.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has attended a ceremony to inaugurate several new warships, including a submarine capable of launching nuclear missiles. However, the 70-year-old head of state was only connected via video conference. At the ceremony, he announced the production of more ships and praised the capabilities of the Russian Navy.
Russia will "accelerate and expand the construction of ships of various types and equip them with the most modern weapon systems," said the Kremlin boss. "In short, it's about doing everything to ensure Russia's security and our national interests on the world's seas," added the president.
Connected via video, he gave the signal to hoist the Russian flag on the new ships. Among the newcomers is the nuclear submarine Generalissimus Suvorov, which can fire nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles.
Putin, who has been in power in Russia for almost 23 years, has made modernizing the Russian armed forces one of his priorities. The Armed Forces were equipped with advanced missiles, including hypersonic missiles, new ships and, most importantly, tanks. However, reconstruction is expensive and is repeatedly delayed due to technical difficulties and cases of corruption.
Despite modernization, the Russian army is still considered to be inadequately equipped and poorly organized. It suffered a series of setbacks in its military offensive in Ukraine. For example, the Russian Black Sea Fleet stationed on the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, annexed by Moscow, was humiliated when Ukrainian forces sank their flagship Moskva in April.
