Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Thursday ordering a 10% increase in the number of soldiers in the army, amid an attack on Ukraine and rising tensions with the West.
According to the decision, published by the government and effective from next January 1, the army should have two million members in 2017, including 1.15 million soldiers, up from 1.9 million, including just over a million fighters. . Specifically, excluding civilian personnel, this is an increase of 137,000 troops, or more than a tenth of the current combat force.
A costly war of human and material resources
This measure, the reasons for which are not explained in the decree, comes from the fact that the Russian army has been conducting an offensive in Ukraine for more than six months, which is very expensive in terms of human and material resources. After failing to capture Kiev at the start of the intervention, Moscow’s forces are now concentrating their forces in eastern and southern parts of Ukraine, where fronts have seen little movement in recent weeks.
The Kremlin has so far refrained from the general mobilization that many Russians fear. The increase in the number of Russian soldiers also occurs at a time when relations between Moscow and Western countries are going through a crisis of unprecedented magnitude since the end of the Cold War.
Source: Le Figaro
