Russian President, Vladimir Putinhas decreed this Monday that the Russian Army has 1.5 million soldiers by December 1, almost 200,000 more than now, the third time it has taken such a decision since the start of the war in Ukraine.
As a result, the Armed Forces will have 2.38 million troopsincluding administrative staff, according to the decree.
Putin, who launched the Russian military campaign in Ukraine in February 2022, ordered the government to allocate money from the budget to implement the increase.
This decree replaces the one signed by the head of the Kremlin in December 2023, when the number of soldiers increased by almost 170,000 men.
Furthermore, in August 2022, just as the Ukrainians were beginning to regain ground, he had already ordered an increase of 137,000 soldiers in the Armed Forces. Since then, the Army has grown from 1.9 million to almost 2.4 million which will be available starting next December 1st.
When Putin came to power in 2000 – Russia was embroiled in the Second Chechen War – the Russian army had a million soldiers.
The Kremlin, which has some 700,000 troops deployed in Ukraine, has accelerated the recruitment of soldiers in recent weeks due to the Ukrainian border incursion into the Kursk region.
The Ukrainian operation has shown that Russia cannot guarantee the security of its borders, which are often protected by conscripts doing military service.
To date, Russian troops have not yet been able to expel the Ukrainian soldiers, who entered Russian territory on August 6.
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