Russian president Vladimir Putin has ordered the country’s military to increase the number of troops by nearly 170,000 to a total of 1.32 million, as Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine continues into its 22nd month.
Putin’s decree was released by the Kremlin on Friday and took force immediately. It brings the overall number of Russian military personnel to about 2.2 million, including 1.32 million troops.
It is the second such expansion of the army since 2018. The previous boost by 137,000 troops, ordered by Putin in August 2022, put the military’s numbers at about 2 million personnel and about 1.15 million troops.
Why mangle the citation when you can quote directly? “Some people, are they even living or not living? It’s unclear. And how they die, from vodka or something else, it’s also unclear”.