Half a year after the invasion of Ukraine, Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin ordered the expansion of the Russian army.
As of 2023, the total army strength is expected to exceed two million people, according to a decree published today.
The number of military personnel alone – including both contract soldiers and those doing military service – is to be increased by 137,000 to around 1.15 million. The remaining members of the military are civilian personnel, such as administrative employees. An official reason for the increase was not given.
Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine on February 24. According to the Kremlin, everything is going “according to plan” in the war. However, international military experts acknowledge that Russia is making only sluggish progress and assume that Russian troops will suffer high losses. Moscow itself has not provided any information on the dead and injured in its own ranks for a long time.
