Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the country's military to increase its number of troops by 180,000, the third time he has expanded its ranks since launching his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The increase would take the overall number of Russian military personnel to nearly 2.4 million, including 1.5 million troops, according to the decree published by the Kremlin Monday. The new staffing will come into effect in December, it said. Putin's decree comes after Ukraine last month launched a lightning attack across the border on Russia's southern Kursk region – the first foreign invasion of Russian territory since World War II. Last week, Russia stepped up its efforts to expel Ukrainian troops from Kursk and is inching forward toward the crucial Ukrainian town of Pokrovsk in the eastern Donbas region. Since 2022, Putin has ordered two previous expansions in the number of combat troops, in addition to a mobilization of military reservists and conscripts. In August 2022, Putin ordered an increase of 137,000 troops by the start of the new year, which put the military's staffing at just over 2 million personnel, including 1.15 million troops. The next month, after a sudden and successful Ukrainian offensive that liberated most of the eastern Kharkiv region, Putin ordered the immediate "partial mobilization" of Russian citizens. The mobilization meant citizens with military experience were subject to conscription and that military reservists could be called up. The mobilization prompted hundreds of thousands to flee the country – many to neighboring Georgia and other formerly communist countries near Russia's border – and sparked angry demonstrations, particularly in Russia's ethnic minority regions that have borne the brunt of previous recruitment drives. The mobilization was suspended in November 2023 after officials said the target of recruiting 300,000 personnel had been met. Then in December, Putin ordered another official expansion of 170,000 troops, bringing the total to 1.32 million. Russia's casualty numbers remain shrouded in secrecy. In September 2022, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said 5,937 troops had been killed in the war. The ministry has not published an update since. Ukrainian and Western intelligence assessments put the toll much higher. In an update published this month, the General Staff of Ukraine's military said Russia has lost 616,300 troops. The United Kingdom's Ministry of Defense also estimates that Russia has suffered more than 610,000 casualties. "Russia's casualty rate will likely continue to average above 1,000 a day throughout September 2024 as Russia continues operations on a wide front from Kursk in the north to Robotyne in the south," it said. — CNN
