MOSCOW, December 19. /TASS/. The Russian Navy has received four modern multipurpose submarines and eight surface ships over the past year, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said.

"The Navy has received four modern multipurpose submarines and eight surface ships. As a result, despite the sanctions, we have produced more high-tech weapons than NATO countries," he said at a meeting of top ministry officials.

According to the minister, the frigate Admiral of the Soviet Union Navy Gorshkov, armed with Tsirkon hypersonic missiles, has successfully completed the mission of combat service in important areas of the World Ocean. It traveled more than 46 thousand miles over 263 days.

All the plans for manning the Army and Navy have been achieved in full this year. The size of these armed services has been brought up to 1.15 million servicemen. Two combined-arms armies, a mixed aviation corps, 50 formations and military units, including four divisions, 18 brigades, 28 regiments have been formed, fully manned and equipped. On December 1, the ministry began work to increase the number of servicemen to 1.32 million people.

"In connection with Finland's accession to NATO and Sweden's forthcoming admission to the alliance, the Leningrad and Moscow military districts continue to be formed. We take into account the agreement signed between the US and Finland, which provides for the US to use 21 Finnish military sites, including all four air bases," Shoigu said.

According to the minister, the number of servicemen in the country's armed forces will be brought up to 1.5 million people to be commensurate with external threats. In 2023, all planned events of operational and combat training, including 17 international exercises of various levels, have been carried out. In August of this year, the Ocean Shield 2023 naval exercise was held in the Baltic Sea, as part of which the Navy and the Aerospace Forces successfully performed missions to protect maritime communications and defend the coast.