Putin orders Russia to increase their number of soldiers by 180,000.

 

Vladimir Putin. AP.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered an increase of the size of the military by 180,000 active duty troops. AP. Once the troops are mobilized and trained the number of active troops in Russia will be 1.5 million. Counting reserve forces, but not paramilitary forces, the total number of troops Russia will have will be 2.4 million, making them one of the largest militaries in the world. Russia uses both conscripts and volunteers in their military but in Ukraine most troops being used are volunteers, due to resistance for using conscripts in the war. Putin said that 700,000 troops were serving in the Ukraine conflict as of June.

My Comment:

A somewhat ominous story that could bode poorly for the state of the world. Russia clearly thinks they need more soldiers than they currently have but the question is why? Is it really because of Ukraine or are they worried about a wider conflict. 

Troop numbers have always been a problem for Russia in Ukraine. Indeed, much of the difficulty they have had in this war is because they didn't bring anywhere near as many troops as they needed. Russia only send 200,000 troops to fight in the initial phase of the war, and they split them up. They did pretty well considering but it isn't surprising they had to pull back from the Kiev front. 

I don't think that the issue is the Kursk incursion, which is currently being retaken. The problem Russia has is that they can't use their conscripts in Ukraine due to the law. However, Russia can absolutely use and is using, conscripts in the Kursk area. Those troops are directly defending Russian territory so they don't have a shortage of troops that can fight there. There were few troops deployed in the area when the attacked happened. 

Does Russia need more troops in Ukraine itself? Probably. They still are outnumbered by Ukraine's depleted and damaged forces. If they had more they could probably advance even quicker than they already are. Having a larger force would help if the Ukrainians manage to launch another offensive like they are rumored to be thinking, insanely enough. Plus it would help to be able to rotate troops out so they could rest and rearm. But it's not like they don't have enough troops now. They could always use more but 180,000 troops aren't going to matter that much. 

But I think this has less to do with Ukraine and more to do with NATO and the United States. Russia issued a warning last week that allowing Ukraine to use long-range precision missiles would be a casus belli for war against NATO, since only NATO troops can operate those weapons. It's very possible that Russia is not bluffing there and they want to build up their own forces just in case the Biden administration is dumb enough to approve the use of those long range weapons. 

The one thing I do know is that I doubt Russia will have any trouble getting volunteers for this force. The Russian military pays pretty well and there is a genuine wave of patriotism. Indeed, it's another reason why Ukraine's Kursk offensive was ill advised to say the least, Russians can rightly claim that their country is under attack and will be willing to defend it...