Russia is expanding its military. From next year, the number of personnel in the army will continue to increase. According to the Kremlin's decree, the number of military personnel alone will increase by more than 100,000.
Six months after the invasion of Ukraine, Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian army to be enlarged. From next year, the army strength should total more than two million people, according to a decree. Currently there are 1.9 million. The number of military personnel alone - including both contract soldiers and conscripts - is to be increased by 137,000 to around 1.15 million.
The remaining members of the military are so-called civilian personnel, i.e. administrative employees, for example. An official reason for the increase was not given.
Russia invaded neighboring Ukraine on February 24. According to the Kremlin, everything is going "according to plan" in the war. However, international military experts acknowledge that Russia is making only sluggish progress and assume that Russian troops will suffer high losses.
Moscow itself has not provided any information on the dead and injured in its own ranks for a long time. Ukraine, on the other hand, speaks of more than 45,000 soldiers killed on the Russian side and recently stated its own losses at 9,000. The information cannot be verified.
