The Kremlin wants to make its army the second largest in the world – but it’s blaming Western “threats” rather than Moscow’s own ambitions.
On Monday, Russian president Vladimir Putin announced by decree that the number in the armed forces was to increase to 2,389,130 overall.
That’s an increase of 180,000 troops, and takes the total number of active servicemen to 1.5 million.
It means Russia would become the second largest military force in the world after China, exceeding the armies of the US and India.
But Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov did not say this was driven by Putin’s land grab in Ukraine.
Instead, he told reporters on Monday: “This was triggered by the multitude of threats existing for our country along our borders.
“This is triggered by an extremely hostile situation on western borders and instability on eastern borders, required taking appropriate measures.”
This will be the third time Putin has expanded his army since invading Ukraine in February 2022.
His partial mobilisation of 300,000 reservists in September 2022 was deeply unpopular.
It triggered a wave of protests across the country and significant emigration as Russians who were reluctant to serve fled.
Putin continues to face a backlash over this move two years later, as concerned wives and mothers of the soldiers serving on the frontline call for him to send their loved ones home.
The Russian president also ordered the military to add 170,000 troops to the army’s ranks back in December 2023 – but this time suggested it would just be made up of volunteers.
In a more diplomatic move, the defence ministry claimed carefully that this did not mean any “significant expansion of conscription”, dodging a significant fallout at the time.
Now, two years since he ordered troops into Ukraine in what was meant to be a short “special military operation”, Putin is still trying to move forward in eastern Ukraine while also pushing Ukrainian troops out of Russia’s own Kursk region.
It’s not known exactly how many casualties Russia has endured in the war, but UK intelligence claimed earlier this month that it has faced 610,000 losses since invading Ukraine.
The Kremlin has not suggested this new expansion is anything to do with replenishing these lost troops, though.
The chair of Russia’s lowest house of parliament’s defence committee, Andrei Kartapolov, claimed on Monday that the expansion was mean to set up new structures and military units to improve security – particularly in the north-west, after the neighbouring country of Finland joined Nato.
Meanwhile, the Russian ambassador to Germany Sergey Nechayev told Deutschlandfunk Radio hit out at the West again, saying the West “do not abide” by various rules of conduct.
He added: “The current situation in the world is much more serious than during the Cold War.”