General Nikolai Reznik added that many of the latest call-ups into army ranks were in poor health and did not meet Russia's military requirements.

"Right now, we are looking for 1,800 army deserters," Reznik was quoted as saying. "And even though (the number of deserters) has recently slightly decreased, there is still little room for optimism."

He noted that many Russian recruits are "in poor health, poorly educated, and this reflects badly on the state of military discipline."

Due to bad discipline and cash shortages, more than 1,200 Russian servicemen died in non-combat incidents so far this year, a senior Russian general reported earlier this month.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has made repeated efforts to reform the under-financed Russian military, where morale has run low since the first 1994-96 Chechen war in which the far-outnumbered separatist rebels won de facto independence.

However, those reforms have stalled amid infighting between army generals, government officials and lawmakers over how to slim down the bloated military while pumping new investment into the armed forces at the same time.

The current Russian military is estimated at some 1.1 million troops.

WAR.WIRE