Putin expands size of Russia's armed forces to 1.5 million

Russian leader Vladimir Putin has issued a decree increasing the number of personnel in the Russian armed forces to 2,389,130, including 1,500,000 military personnel.

Source: Kremlin-aligned Russian news agencies TASS and RIA Novosti; DW, a German international broadcaster and media outlet; Meduza, a Latvia-based Russian media outlet

Quote: "I hereby decree: The number of staff in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation shall be set at 2,389,130, including 1,500,000 military personnel."

Details: The Kremlin leader has ordered the government to allocate sufficient funds from the budget to the Defence Ministry to implement the decree.

This means that Putin has increased the armed forces' staff by 180,000 people.

Putin last expanded the Russian armed forces in December 2023, bringing the total number of personnel to 1.32 million. Prior to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the number was just over 1 million.

The Russian Defence Ministry has not yet commented on Putin's new decree.

Following the decree issued in December 2023, the ministry stated that the increase in the size of the Armed Forces would come from "citizens who wish to serve under contract", with no significant increase in conscription for regular military service and no plans for mobilisation. The ministry attributed the increase in troops to "the growing threats to the country due to the special military operation [as Russian propaganda terms the war against Ukraine] and continuing NATO expansion".

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