Russia’s Putin Orders Military Troop Increase by 180,000 Amid Ongoing Ukraine Conflict

Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued an order to increase the country’s military personnel by 180,000, marking the third expansion of the military since the onset of the conflict in Ukraine in February 2022, CNN reports.

According to a decree published by the Kremlin, this increase will raise the overall number of Russian military personnel to nearly 2.4 million, which includes 1.5 million active troops. The new staffing levels are set to take effect in December.

This decree comes on the heels of a recent attack launched by Ukraine across the border aimed at Russia’s southern Kursk region. In response, Russia has intensified its efforts to remove Ukrainian forces from the Kursk area and is currently advancing towards the strategically significant town of Pokrovsk in the eastern Donbas region.

Since the beginning of the conflict in 2022, President Putin has implemented two previous troop expansions, in addition to a mobilization effort.

In August 2022, he ordered an increase of 137,000 troops by the beginning of the new year, bringing the military’s total personnel to just over 2 million, which included 1.15 million soldiers. In December of the same year, Putin announced another official expansion of 170,000 troops, raising the total number to 1.32 million.