The UK Ministry of Defense said this in its latest intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine, Ukrinform reports.
According to the report, Russia has almost certainly established a major new ground forces formation, third Army Corps (3 AC), based out of Mulino, in Nizhny Novgorod region east of Moscow.
“Russia likely plans to resource a large proportion of 3 AC from newly formed ‘volunteer’ battalions, which are being raised across the country, and which group together recruits from the same areas,” the report reads.
Recruitment of new members to join 3 AC is open to men up to 50 years old and with only middle-school education.
However, 3 AC’s effect is unlikely to be decisive to the campaign, the British Defense Ministry stressed.
As Ukrinform reported, Ukraine’s Ministry for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories on August 9 warned residents of the occupied territories against obtaining Russian passports, as such a step could be used by the invaders to mobilize Ukrainian citizens to join their army.
