Putin decree: The Russian army to be increased 1.5 million
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed a decree, increasing his country’s forces with extra 180,000 troops to a total of 1.5 million, as Moscow’s military action in Ukraine drags on for more than two and a half years.
The presidential decree, published on the government’s official website, will come into effect on December 1 and will mandate that the total number of Russian military personnel be around 2.4 million – including 1.5 million soldiers – with the government obliged to provide the necessary funding.
Putin said last June that the number of troops participating in the Russian war in Ukraine amounted to about 700,000, or more than half of all active soldiers.
The number of Russian troops also increased last December, when the Russian president issued a decree setting the total number of Russian military personnel at about 2.2 million, including about 1.3 million soldiers.
After calling up 300,000 reservists in the face of a Ukrainian counteroffensive in the fall of 2022, Russian authorities turned to filling the ranks of forces fighting in Ukraine with volunteer soldiers, who are attracted by relatively high wages.
Several observers note that the Kremlin has been reluctant to call up more reservists, fearing a backlash similar to what happened in 2022 when hundreds of thousands fled Russia for fear of being sent to the front lines.
The Kremlin has sought to avoid redeploying forces in eastern Ukraine, relying on reinforcements from other regions to halt the advance.
The Russian defense ministry said on Monday it had retaken two new villages in the Kursk region.
