Russian President, Vladimir Putin, has issued a decree ordering an increase in the country’s military personnel by 180,000, bringing the total number of troops to 1.5 million even as Russia’s military operation in Ukraine continues beyond two and a half years.
The decree, published on the official government website on Monday, September 16, will take effect on December 1 and sets the overall number of Russian military personnel at approximately 2.4 million, comprising 1.5 million troops.
The Russian government has been instructed to provide the necessary funding to support this expansion.
This is the second increase in Russian troop numbers in less than a year, following a decree by Putin in December that set the total number of military personnel at around 2.2 million, including 1.32 million troops.
The move comes as Russia’s most trained troops have been advancing in eastern Ukraine, making gradual but consistent gains over the past few months, while Ukrainian troops still occupy the Kursk region of Russia.
In June, Putin put the number of troops involved in what the Kremlin calls the “special military operation” in Ukraine at nearly 700,000.
After calling up 300,000 reservists after Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the fall of 2022, Russian authorities have switched to filling the ranks of troops fighting in Ukraine with volunteers and prisoners, who have been attracted by relatively high wages and the possibility of getting their freedom.
The shortage of military personnel has been widely cited as a key reason behind the success of Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk region launched on Aug. 6.
