Tuesday, September 17, 2024 - 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.
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