Russian President Vladimir Putin is demanding tens of thousands more soldiers join his war effort as Russia's army losses top one million people.
The Russian president has demanded the country's military increases its number of troops by nearly 170,000 people, despite 331,110 troops having been killed and more than 993,330 having been injured so badly they've had no choice but to leave the Russia-Ukraine war, according to statistics from the Special Operations Forces of Ukraine.
The 71-year-old's demands will bring the country’s military troops to a total of 1.32 million, as Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine approaches its two year anniversary. Putin’s decree was released by the Kremlin on Friday (December 1) and took force immediately bringing the overall number of Russian military personnel to about 2.2 million.
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A similar boost of 137,000 troops was ordered by Putin in August 2022 which put the military’s numbers at about two million personnel and about 1.15 million troops. In total more than 1.3million of its troops have been lost as a result of death or serious injury.
The defence ministry said the order for troops doesn’t imply any “significant expansion of conscription”, saying in a statement that the increase would happen gradually by recruiting more volunteers. The ministry also cited what it called “the special military operation” in Ukraine and the expansion of NATO as reasons for the uplift.
Boosting Russian troops was an appropriate response to “the aggressive activities of the Nato bloc”, the ministry said. Last December, Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, declared the country needed a force of 1.5 million “to guarantee the fulfilment of tasks to ensure Russia’s security” but did not reveal when exactly the military would reach that size.
The Russian military has itself confirmed around 6,000 military casualties, but western estimates are much higher. In October, the UK defence ministry said Russia had “likely suffered 150,000 to 190,000 permanent casualties".
This number included troops that have been killed or permanently wounded. Statistics provided by the Special Operations Forces of Ukraine suggest the death toll is far higher at more than than 330,000 killed and near one million permanently wounded.
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