President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Sept.16 which will increase the Russian Armed Forces to 2,389,000 people of whom 1.5 million are military personnel. The decree will go into effect on Dec. 1. An earlier increase in 2023 was accomplished without a further mobilization and relied on “contract soldiers.". It does not seem that this will require a new mobilization as the number of “contract soldiers” or people volunteering for service has increased after the Ukrainian incursion in Kursk.State Duma Deputy Gen. Andrei Gurulev explained in a conversation with Tsargrad that there should be no panic or pathos about this.
According to him, such measures are being taken in order to “create new units and formations to conduct special military operations, which today and in the future are recruited from among volunteers who sign a contract and go to serve, fulfill their duty, defending our Motherland.” Funds will be allocated for the purpose of this increase.
Military expert, Lugansk People’s Republic Col, Vitaly Kiselev, in turn, points out the difficult situation that the West is creating for our country. “The increase in troops is due to the fact that the aggressive environment created by Western countries, America, England, will increasingly create unpleasant pressure on our country along its entire perimeter,” he said.
At the same time, the expert added, there is no point in talking about any mobilization in the context of this decree on expanding the number of Russian Armed Forces. “In all likelihood, there will be no mobilization. Today, there are enough volunteers and contract soldiers going into active military service, signing [contracts] with the Ministry of Defense,” he noted.
In December 2023, the level was raised to 2,209,130 people (from slightly over 2 million), including 1,320,000 military personnel.
