Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the Russian military on Monday to increase the number of troops by 180,000, bringing the total number to 1.5 million.
Putin issued this order as Moscow’s war in Ukraine approaches its third year.
The order, published on the official Russian government website, will take effect on December 1. With this order, the total number of personnel in the Russian military will reach nearly 2.4 million, including 1.5 million troops. He has instructed the government to provide the necessary funding for the military.
Putin had previously ordered an increase in the number of Russian troops last December when he requested that the total number of military personnel be raised to 2.2 million, including 1.32 million troops.
The Russian military is conducting an offensive in eastern Ukraine, where its troops have made significant advances in recent months.
In June, Putin stated that nearly 700,000 Russian troops were involved in what the Kremlin calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine.
After calling up 300,000 reservists to counter the Ukrainian counteroffensive in the spring of 2022, Russian authorities decided to fill the ranks of troops fighting in Ukraine with volunteer soldiers, who were mainly attracted by high wages.
Many war commentators have noted that the Kremlin has hesitated to call up more reservists, fearing domestic destabilization as occurred in 2022 when hundreds of thousands of people fled Russia to avoid being drafted into the war.
The lack of military personnel has been cited as the primary reason for the success of the Ukrainian incursion into the Kursk region of Russia, which began on August 6.
The Kremlin has been reluctant to redeploy troops from eastern Ukraine and has relied on reinforcements from other areas to curb the Ukrainian incursion.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said on Monday that it has regained control of two villages from Ukrainian forces in Kursk. /REL
