Putin Orders Russia to Recruit 137,000 More Troops as War Drags
- Presidential decree to bring troop total to 1.15 million
- Kremlin seen building forces following casualties in Ukraine
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President Vladimir Putin ordered his army to boost its troop total by 137,000 to 1.15 million, the highest level in more than a decade, as Russia digs in for its war against Ukrainian forces backed by the US and its allies.
Putin’s brief decree, published on the Kremlin’s website, didn’t explain the motivation for the increase or where the new recruits would come from. Russia has turned to private military contractors, local “volunteers” and recruits from among prison inmates to replenish the losses it has suffered in six months since it invaded. So far, the Kremlin has avoided a mass mobilization or even an official declaration of war, seeking to limit the domestic fallout from the campaign.