Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday ordered an increase of 180,000 troops to the Russian military, bringing Russia's total number of active duty soldiers to 1.5 million, making it the world's second-largest military after China's.
The order goes into effect on December 1st. Third Putin has ordered a major buildup of the Russian military since invading Ukraine in February 2022, adding 137,000 active-duty troops in August 2022 and 170,000 in December 2023.
Including reservists and other personnel, the Russian military's strength will increase from 2.2 million to 2.38 million after Putin's order comes into effect.
“This is due to the presence of a number of threats to our country along the borders, which are caused by an extremely hostile environment on the western border and instability on the eastern border. We need to take appropriate measures,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. said on monday.
Russian Ministry of Defense said Putin's order for the surge was in response to NATO deploying more troops and advanced weaponry along Russia's border.
Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin said Last Friday, NATO said it was “planning to send troops to Ukraine.”
“This is a dangerous game that could lead to direct military conflict between nuclear-armed states,” Fomin said.
On the same day, President Putin Warned If Western countries were to lift restrictions on Ukraine and use long-range missiles to attack targets deep inside Russian territory, “NATO countries, including the United States, would be at war with Russia.”
Putin said the Ukrainian military “does not have the capacity to use cutting-edge, high-precision, long-range systems supplied by Western countries to attack targets on Russian soil without direct Western support.”
Andrey Kartapolov, chairman of the Russian State Duma's Defense Committee, said Russia on Monday argued that it needed to expand its military to meet the growing security threat posed by NATO in the wake of the Finnish attack. Participated The alliance was formed in April.
Foreign military analysts believe Russia's severe manpower shortages have forced the Ukrainian military to fight back. Seize territory Russia committed about 700,000 troops to invade Ukraine in the Kursk region last month and has been reluctant to call up more reserve forces to bolster its forces, fearing civil unrest.
