Putin orders increase of Russian army size to over 2 million in 2023

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree that will increase the total number of military and civilian staff of the Russian Armed Forces from 1.9 million to 2.04 million people. The change is stated in a presidential decree, which will enter into force on 1 January 2023.

“Establish the staff strength of the Russian Armed Forces at 2,039,758 units, including 1,150,628 servicemen,” the document reads.

The Russian government has also been instructed to provide the Defence Ministry with the necessary budgetary allocations.

According to sources cited by The New York Times, 500 Russian servicemen are killed or wounded in Ukraine daily. The US Department of Defence has stated that Russia has already deployed close to 85 percent of its military units to the war.

Earlier, independent media outlet The Insider and investigators from Bellingcat released an article listing the complaints of relatives of Russian servicemen in Ukraine. The piece detailed that many soldiers are being forced to take part in the war, while conscripts are being forced to sign contracts and servicemen are not being provided with food and medical care.

Neither Russia nor Ukraine regularly reports on war casualties. The Russian Defence Ministry last reported its military losses on 25 March — at that time, it confirmed that 1,351 servicemen had been killed.