This move will result in Russia becoming the country with the second-largest standing army in the world.

On Monday, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to increase the number of Russian armed forces to 2,389,130 units, including 1.5 million military personnel.

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The new decree will take effect on December 1, 2024. Currently, the number of Russian armed forces stands at 2,209,130 units, including 1.32 million military personnel.

Putin instructed members of his administration to allocate the necessary budget funds for the increase in military personnel. This new decree replaces the one issued by the Kremlin chief in December 2023, when he increased the number of soldiers by nearly 170,000.

Previously, in August 2022, Putin had already ordered an increase of 137,000 soldiers in the Armed Forces. Since then, the army has grown from 1.9 million to almost 2.4 million, which it will reach by the end of this year.

“This move will effectively result in Russia surpassing the U.S. and becoming the country with the second-largest standing army in the world,” Sputnik commented recalling that the five countries with the largest number of active militaries are China (2 million), Russia (1.5 million), India (1.4 million), U.S. (1.3 million), and North Korea (1.3 million)

In 2000, when Putin came to power, Russia was engaged in the Second Chechen War, and its army had one million soldiers. Currently, the Kremlin has around 700,000 troops deployed in Ukraine and has accelerated the recruitment of soldiers due to the Ukrainian incursion into the Kursk region that took place on August 6.

On Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry said its armed forces had liberated the settlements of Uspenovka and Borki in the Kursk Region. Russian troops also repelled five enemy counterattacks from various directions in the region on the same day.

teleSUR/ JF Source: EFE – Xinhua

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