Russia-Ukraine War: Vladimir Putin Approves Military Expansion Amid Major Casualties

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree that would increase the size of Moscow's military armed forces from 1.9 million to 2.04 million amid the rising tensions of its invasion of Ukraine.

The Kremlin has not yet revealed any losses in the conflict since its first weeks, but Western officials and the Kyiv government say that the casualties number in the thousands. The decree would include an increase of 137,000 in the number of combat personnel to 1.15 million.

Putin's New Decree

The order would come into effect on Jan. 1, based on the document published on the Russian government's legislative portal. The last time that Putin changed the size of the Russian army was in November 2017, when the number of combat personnel was set at 1.01 million from a total armed forces headcount, including non-combatants, of 1.9 million.

Russia has not yet revealed how many casualties it suffered amid the war with Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict when it reported losing 1,351 of its soldiers. But Western estimates that roughly ten times that number have been killed, as per Yahoo News.

Furthermore, Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, has been reluctant to publish information on how many of its soldiers have died in the war. But on Monday, the head of the country's armed forces said that almost 9,000 service personnel had been killed in a rare update to the public.

The Russian president's new decree did not say how the increase in the headcount was to be achieved but ordered the government to assign the corresponding budget. An authoritative annual report conducted by the International Institute for Strategic Studies showed that Moscow had 900,000 active service personnel at the start of this year.

According to The Guardian, Putin's latest decree marks a noticeable increase in army personnel since the last time. The UK Ministry of Defense said that Moscow had lost roughly a third of its ground combat strength since the beginning of its invasion of Ukraine.

Moscow's Military Forces

Last month, William Burns, the director of the CIA, said that an estimated 15,000 Russian servicemen had died in Ukraine. He added that roughly "three times" were wounded because of the conflict.

Moscow, which has so far been conservative in declaring a general mobilization, has recently intensified its efforts to bring in new fighters for the war. However, some experts referred to the process as "covert mobilization."

Various regions across Russia have started to form volunteer battalions, offering lucrative short-term contracts to men aged 18 and 60. Western intelligence also reported that private military companies, including the Wagner group, are being used to reinforce Moscow's frontline forces.

The Kremlin, however, noted that only volunteer contract soldiers would take part in what it has called a "special military operation" in Ukraine. Russia has also been accused of offering amnesty to some prisoners in exchange for a tour of military duty.

The Russian men aged 18 to 27 are required to serve one year in the military, but a large share avoids the draft for health reasons or deferments granted to university students. The number of individuals who dodge the draft is particularly large in Moscow and other big cities, Aljazeera reported.