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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