Russian President Vladimir Putin Photo: AR
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree to expand the Russian Armed Forces, marking the third increase since the invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, reports Meduza.
The decree, published on Russia’s official legal information portal, states that the total number of personnel in the Russian Armed Forces will be 2,389,130, of which 1.5 million will be military personnel. The decree is set to take effect in December 2024.
In comparison, the previous decree signed by Putin in December 2023 set the number of personnel at 2,209,130, with 1.329 million military personnel. The new decree increases the total by 180,000.
While Russia’s Ministry of Defense has yet to comment on the new decree, following the similar increase in 2023, the ministry stated that the additional personnel would come from voluntary contract soldiers, rather than a significant increase in conscription.
Russia first increased its military size in August 2022, after operating under a 2017 decree that set the number of military personnel at just over one million, the force Moscow entered the war with on February 24, 2022. In September 2022, Putin announced a “partial mobilization” amid heavy losses on the battlefield, despite earlier assurances that only professional soldiers would be involved in the “special military operation.”
