Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday ordered the country's military to increase its number of troops by 180,000 to a total of 1.5 million, as Moscow's military action in Ukraine drags on for more than 2 ½ years.
Putin's decree, published on the official government website, will take effect Dec. 1. It sets the overall number of Russian military personnel at nearly 2.4 million, including 1.5 million troops, and orders the government to provide the necessary funding.
The previous increase in Russian troop numbers came last December, when a decree by Putin set the total number of Russian military personnel at about 2.2 million, including 1.32 million troops.
The most capable Russian troops have been pressing an offensive in eastern Ukraine, where they have made incremental but steady gains in the past few months.
In June, Putin put the number of troops involved in what the Kremlin calls the 'special military operation" in Ukraine at nearly 700,000.
