The war in Ukraine, Putin orders an increase in the number of soldiers to 1.5 million

2024-09-16 16:41:20 / BOTA ALFA PRESS

The war in Ukraine, Putin orders an increase in the number of soldiers to 1.5

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian army on Monday to increase the number of troops by 180,000, to reach a total of 1.5 million.

Putin issued the order as Moscow's war in Ukraine heads into its third year.

Putin's order, published on the official website of the Russian Government, will enter into force on December 1. With this order, the total number of Russian military personnel will reach nearly 2.4 million, including 1.5 million troops. He has ordered the Government to provide the necessary funds for the army.

Putin had given the order to increase the number of Russian troops last December, when through a decree he requested that the total number of Russian army personnel be increased to 2.2 million, including 1.32 million troops.

The Russian army is conducting an offensive in eastern Ukraine, where its troops have made significant advances in recent months.

In June, Putin said nearly 700,000 Russian troops are involved in what the Kremlin calls a "special military operation" in Ukraine.

After calling up 300,000 reservists to face the Ukrainian counter-offensive in the spring of 2022, the Russian authorities decided to fill the ranks of the troops fighting in Ukraine with volunteer soldiers, who have been lured mainly by high salaries.

Many war commentators have pointed out that the Kremlin has been reluctant to call up more reservists, fearing destabilization in the country as happened in 2022, when hundreds of thousands of people fled Russia to avoid being called up to war.

The lack of military personnel has been widely cited as the main reason for the success of Ukraine's incursion into Russia's Kursk region, which began on August 6.

The Kremlin did not want to redeploy the troops from the east of Ukraine and therefore relied on reinforcements from other areas to stop the Ukrainian incursion.

Russia's Defense Ministry said on Monday that it has recaptured two villages from Ukrainian forces in Kursk .

 

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