Putin to boost Russian army larger than U.S. military

President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Monday to increase the number of soldiers in the Russian army by 180,000. This means his army will soon be larger than the American one.

Putin's decree, which went into effect on December 1, set the Russian army's total number of military personnel at 2.4 million, including 1.5 million soldiers, reports The Moscow Times.

This is the third expansion of the armed forces since Putin began the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The first increase was by 137,000 soldiers in August 2022. He did it again in December of last year, ordering an increase of 170,000 soldiers.

The Onet portal points out that implementing Putin's decree will mean that Russia will surpass the American army in terms of the number of soldiers, which currently stands at 1.3 million.

In this way, Putin will command the world's second-largest army in terms of personnel. Only China's army is larger, with 2.03 million soldiers.

Putin decided to expand the army shortly after warning the West that allowing Ukraine to use long-range weapons to attack targets deep within Russia would put NATO at war with Russia.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, when asked about Putin's decision, replied: "This is due to the number of threats that exist to our country along the perimeter of our borders." He added, "It is caused by the extremely hostile environment on our western borders and instability on our eastern borders. This demands appropriate measures to be taken."