Vladimir Putin increases military personnel to 1.55 million

O decree does not provide justification for the increase or specifies how the new vacancies will be filled.

“ The authorised staff of the Russian armed forces is set at 2,441,630 members, of which 1,550,500 are military,” the document states.

Putin had already signed documents increasing the army's staff in March, June and July this year.

The increase since March has reached 47,860 military personnel.

Ukraine has repeatedly accused Russia of preparing a new military mobilization, something Vladimir Putin called “disinformation”.

The last time Putin ordered a mobilization of reservists was in 2022, after a series of Russian military setbacks on the battlefield in Ukraine.

Putin's order comes at a time when both Russia and Ukraine have suffered increasing losses in the war in Ukraine, which has lasted for more than four and a half years.

Russian advances on the battlefield have slowed down this year, as the widespread use of drones on the front makes rapid and mass troop movements almost impossible.

The commander of the III Ukrainian Army Corps, Andrí Biletski, announced this Monday the recovery of 176 square kilometers of territory in the north of the Donetsk region.

According to Biletski, the reconquest of the territory took place within the framework of Operation Vivaldi, in which Ukraine had inflicted on Russian forces about “two thousand casualties and captured 250 prisoners”.

The Moscow authorities have not yet referred to these Ukrainian Army statements on the Donetsk region.

At the same time, the latest Russian attacks on Ukraine have killed eight people, the Kyiv government said on Sunday.

Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022, with the argument of protecting the pro-Russian separatist minorities in the east and de-nazifying the neighbouring country, independent since 1991 – after the disintegration of the former Soviet Union – and which has been moving away from Moscow's space of influence and approaching Europe and the West.

At diplomatic level, Russia has so far rejected any prolonged ceasefire and demands, in order to put an end to the conflict, that Ukraine give it at least four regions – Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporijia – in addition to the Crimean peninsula, annexed in 2014, and forever renounce membership of NATO (Organisation of the Atlantic-North Treaty, Western Defence Block).