The German military will establish a new division tasked exclusively with territorial defense, the army said on Saturday, bringing all existing reserve units under direct army command.
The reorganization will take effect in April and raise the number of German divisions - units of some 20,000 troops - to four without increasing the total number of around 180,000 soldiers in the German forces.
"The territorial defense will be put under army command from April 1, 2025," an army spokesperson said, confirming a report by German news agency dpa.The German move will streamline command structures in territorial defense at a time when what Berlin describes as acts of Russian sabotage against the country's critical infrastructure have reached a new high. Russia denies the accusations.