This message was commented on by military expert Egidijus Papečkys.
“I was a bit surprised by the news about the formation of construction battalions in the Russian army, but such a decision, from the Kremlin’s bell tower perspective, is even very rational,” he said in his comment on the social network “Facebook.”
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According to him, this is a measure to cheaply form a workforce for fortifications and other various protective measures (e.g., anti-drone nets over roads), as well as to eliminate the consequences of Ukrainian drone attacks.
“Those poor souls who ‘lacked the health’ to serve in combat units and who have so far quietly stayed at home can be easily drafted into construction battalions. No problems using them, even if there are conscripts, since they are ‘non-combatants,’ simply lawless wretches costing the Kremlin less than Koreans,” the analyst said.
According to him, this system should also help avoid embezzlement and unfinished work.
According to the news agency TASS, the main “builder” of the Russian Ministry of Defense – the Military Construction Company – worked so “honestly” that the ministry filed claims against it: in 2023 for 441.4 million rubles, in 2024 for 18.8 billion rubles, in 2025 for 15.1 billion rubles, and from the beginning of 2026 – already for 17.2 billion rubles (190 million euros).
“Those who served in the ‘strojbat,’ please kindly share your experience with the youth,” E. Papečkys urged on his Facebook page.
15min reminds that during the Soviet era, conscripts with lower education, criminal pasts, or those whom the Soviet authorities did not trust for political or ethnic reasons were often sent to the “strojbat.”
Military builders spent most of their time holding a shovel, concrete mixer, or hammer, rather than an automatic weapon.
What was devised: who needs “strojbats”?
The creation of military construction units is planned for December 2024 in the construction complex reform announced by Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov. At that time, the minister proposed transferring part of the powers, funds, and construction capacities to military districts.
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By December 2025, the first stage of the reform was completed: the Main Capital Construction Directorate was established in the Russian Ministry of Defense, and corresponding profile units were created in force units and military districts. The task for 2026, according to A. Belousov, is to prepare the legal framework for military construction units and to staff the formed units. According to him, commanders must have their own tool for the construction of the most important military facilities.
The new units resemble Soviet “strojbats” in their purpose. They will be integrated directly into the military structure and carry out construction work for the benefit of the army. This model began to be abandoned on the eve of the USSR’s collapse, and the process continued in Russia. In 2006, then Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov stated that the ministry’s military construction detachments would be completely disbanded, and “all the notoriously infamous ‘strojbats’ are liquidated as a class.”
Experts named the reasons
Why are “strojbats” being restored? Russian experts highlight several reasons.
First, the demand for military construction work has sharply increased. As political scientist Nikolay Mitrochin told the portal “Agentstvo,” the potential scope of work for the created units is enormous – from the construction of military towns and defensive infrastructure on the border with Finland to crossings, bridges, and other engineering objects at the front.
The second reason is related to the need to carry out construction in dangerous areas, where civilian contractors may refuse to work due to shelling and Ukrainian drone activity, “Agentstvo” said citing a representative of the “Conflict Intelligence Team.” According to the expert, military builders will simply carry out orders in such cases. Military expert Pavel Luzin agrees that civilian contractors are clearly poorly prepared to work in a wide combat zone.
During the Soviet era, there were up to 400,000 “strojbat” soldiers
However, the structure currently being created is much smaller in scale than the Soviet one, writes “Agentstvo.”
“In the Soviet army, there were from 300,000 to 400,000 ‘strojbat’ soldiers,” recalls N. Mitrochin. In his assessment, this may be because new units can be created for specific projects – for example, the demonstrative reconstruction of destroyed cities in occupied territories.
In addition, those who the army would not be ready to entrust with weapons, as well as persons refusing service due to beliefs in the event of possible mobilization, may be sent to “strojbats,” the expert says.
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