Russian dictator Vladimir Putin decreed on Monday (16) that the Russian Army will have 1.5 million soldiers by December 1, 180 thousand more than now, the third time he has made such a decision since the start of the war in Ukraine.
As a result, the Armed Forces will have 2.38 million personnel, including administrative staff, according to the decree.
Putin, who launched the Russian military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, has ordered the regime to allocate budget money to make this increase effective.
This decree replaces the one the Kremlin chief signed in December 2023, when he increased the number of troops by almost 170,000 men.
Furthermore, in August 2022, just as the Ukrainians were beginning to regain ground, he had already ordered a 137,000 increase in the number of soldiers in the Armed Forces.
Since then, the Army has gone from 1.9 million to the almost 2.4 million it will have as of December 1.
When Putin came to power in 2000, Russia was involved in the Second Chechen War and the Russian army had 1 million soldiers.
The Kremlin, which has about 700,000 troops deployed in Ukraine, has accelerated its recruitment of troops in recent weeks due to the Ukrainian incursion into the Kursk border region.
This Ukrainian operation demonstrated that Russia cannot guarantee the security of its border, which is protected in many cases by conscripts who are still doing military service.
So far, Russian troops have not yet managed to expel Ukrainian soldiers, who entered Russian territory on August 6.
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