For the third time since the Ukraine war began in February 2022, President Putin has approved an expansion of Russia’s military, on Monday signing a decree to boost the number of soldiers by 180,000.
This means Russia’s armed forces will include 1.5 million active servicemen going into winter. It is also a clear signal that Russia doesn’t plan on reducing the intensity of the fight in the Donbass anytime soon. This will bring the overall number of military personnel within Russia’s army, including all reserve forces, to over 2,300,000.
Putin had previously sign-off on two prior expansion waves: an increase of 137,000 in August 2022 and another expanse of 170,000 in December 2023.
In the fall of 2022, when Ukraine’s much-hyped counteroffensive was in full swing, Putin had called up some 300,000 reservists to join the fight.
With this latest troop increase, Putin could also be signaling NATO that Russia will not back down, at a moment the US and UK are mulling approving Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles to attack inside Russian territory. […]
— Read More: www.zerohedge.com
