The Kremlin is increasing the size of its military. Putin signed the decree

The Russian leader signed a decree setting the workforce of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation at 2,209,130 ​​people, including 1,320,000 soldiers. The previous decree indicated that the strength of the army was 2,039,758 people, including 1,150,628 military personnel.

According to the Kremlin press service, the order will come into effect on the day it is signed by the president.

‘No mobilization planned’

The Interfax agency reported that Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian government to allocate funds from the federal budget “necessary to implement the decree” to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.

Moscow claims that the increase in the number of Russian armed forces personnel is due to “the increase in threats against the Russian Federation in connection with the Northern Military District and the continued expansion of NATO.” “There are no plans to significantly increase the recruitment of civilians for compulsory military service. No mobilization is planned,” the Russian Ministry of Defense emphasized in a statement.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine

Russia’s large-scale military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 unleashed a war that devastated areas in eastern and southern Ukraine, injured or killed hundreds of thousands of people and created the worst crisis in Russia’s relations with the West in six decades. Russian military aggression against Ukraine grew into the largest armed conflict in Europe since the end of World War II and the fall of Nazi Germany in 1945.

The President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, is presenting the war against Ukraine as part of a much broader confrontation with the United States, which, according to the Kremlin, wants to dismember Russia, seize its vast natural resources and then focus on competition with Russia. China. The West sees Russian aggression in Ukraine as Moscow’s biggest strategic mistake since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.