Armed Forces of South Ossetia units. On 31 March 2017, defence ministers of the two countries signed agreements whereby some units of the armed forces of South Ossetia would go under Russia′s command. The South Ossetian military has a total of 16,000 soldiers. 2,500 soldiers are on active duty and 13,500 are reservists. At the beginning of the 2008 South Ossetia war, the armed forces possessed the following equipment: After the 2008 South Ossetia War, some of the tanks captured from Georgia's forces have been transferred to the South Ossetian military. There are 2500 active members and approximately 16000 reserve members within the South Ossetian
Russia–South Ossetia relations percent of administrative buildings in Tskhinval were destroyed in the Georgian shelling of the city in 2008. On 30 August 2008, Tarzan Kokoity, the Deputy Speaker of South Ossetia's parliament, announced that the region would soon be absorbed into Russia, so that South and North Ossetians could live together in one united Russian state. Russian and South Ossetian forces began giving residents in Akhalgori, the biggest town in the predominantly ethnic Georgian eastern part of South Ossetia, the choice of accepting Russian citizenship or leaving. However, Eduard Kokoity, the then president of South Ossetia, later stated that South Ossetia would