Russia has created more than half a million new jobs in its defense sector to meet soaring demand on the battlefield, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday. The Kremlin has thrown massive resources at its full-scale assault on Ukraine, with the defense sector accounting for much of the sanctions-hit economy’s growth. “In the last year and a half alone, 520,000 new jobs have been created in defense,” Putin told a political forum with defense workers in the western city of Tula. “In order to be successful on the battlefield today, it is necessary to react quickly and adequately to what is happ…