Putin orders third increase in Russian troop numbers sInce Ukraine invasion

Increase of 180,000 would leave Russian army second only to China in terms of number of active combat soldiers.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the country’s military to increase its troop numbers by 180,000 to a total of 1.5 million active servicemen in a move that would make Russia’s army the second largest in the world after China.

The decree, published on the official government website, will take effect on December 1. It says the overall size of the armed forces is to be increased to 2.38 million people.

According to data from the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), a leading military think tank, such an increase would leave Russia with more active combat soldiers than the United States and India and make its army second only to China in size. Beijing has just more than 2 million active duty service personnel, according to IISS.

The decree marks the third time Putin has expanded the army’s ranks since launching his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and comes as Russian forces inch forward in eastern Ukraine and try to push Ukrainian forces out of Russia’s Kursk region.

In June, Putin put the number of troops involved in the fighting in Ukraine at nearly 700,000.