MBABANE:Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the country’s military to increase its troop numbers by one hundred and eighty thousand(180,000) to a total of 1.5 million active servicemen in a move that would make Russia’s army the second largest in the world after China, Aljazeera reported on Tuesday morning.
“The decree, published on the official government website, will take effect on December 1. It says the overall size of the armed forces is to be increased to 2.38 million people”, reads the report in part.
The latest decree marks the third time Putin has expanded the military's ranks since starting his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 [File: Alexander Kazakov/Sputnik via Reuters)