Russia to augment its armed forces by 10% due to Ukraine conflict

Moscow: As the Russia-Ukraine conflict prolongs into the sixth month, Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree to increase the size of Russia’s armed forces by 10%. Russian media has reported that this will come into effect from 1st Jan 2023. The Russian army is one of the top military forces in the world. Currently, Russia has about 1.9 million armed forces and is expected to increase by 10% to about 2.04 million upon implementing President Putin’s orders, as per media’s report.

Both Russia and Ukraine have faced severe casualties in the conflict so far. After the conflict broke out, Russia declared losing about 1500 troops. However, Russia stopped publishing the count later on. Ukraine and other western media have reported that Russia has lost more than 10000 soldiers in the conflict. As the Ukraine conflict is likely to get prolonged, Russia is trying to build up the capacity of its armed forces. Volunteer battalions are being prepared from different regions of Russia. Contract security forces were also used. Hence to ensure that the military plans and deployment capabilities stay unaffected, a 10% increase in armed forces is announced, which would also substitute for the lost soldiers in the Ukraine conflict.