On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin endorsed a plan to increase the size of the military forces by the more than 30%, saying Moscow must learn from and resolve the issues it had encountered in Ukraine.
Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu suggested expanding the armed forces to 1.5 million combat personnel from 1.15 million at a year-end summit of Russia’s top military commanders.
At the televised meeting, Shoigu informed Putin that this was necessary “to assure the settlement of problems relating to Russia’s military security.” According to him, 695,000 of the combatants should be professional hired soldiers rather than conscripts performing conscription-related military service.
In addition to drafting more than 300,000 reservists in a contentious mobilisation effort to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Putin recently signed a directive directing soldier numbers to be expanded by 137,000 starting on January 1 2023 to reach the 1.15 million threshold.
Tens of thousands of Russian soldiers have reportedly killed in the ten months since Moscow invaded Ukraine, according to American and western military analysts. The last time an official count was made public on September 21, Shoigu reported that 5,937 Russian soldiers had died there.
Shoigu also suggested expanding the age range for Russian nationals who must serve in the military to include those between the ages of 21 and 30. While Shoigu and Putin have repeatedly stated that conscripts are not being sent to fight in Ukraine, the current system allows Russians between the ages of 18 and 27 to be called up for required military duty. At the conclusion of the meeting, Putin declared his support for Shoigu’s ideas.