Russian President Vladimir Putin has expanded the country’s military for the third time since a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, bringing the total number of troops to 2.389 million, according to a presidential decree issued Monday.
The number of soldiers is to increase to 1.5 million, the decree said. In December, Putin increased the target strength of the army to 2.2 million, including 1.33 million soldiers.
The new target will increase the number of troops by 50%, compared to just over 1 million at the start of the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
There was no immediate reaction to the new figures from the Defense Ministry in Moscow. In the last increase, the ministry insisted that the increase would be covered by recruiting more volunteers.
In September 2022, Putin ordered a partial mobilization in response to a series of military defeats in the war, which led to widespread discontent among the population and caused many young men to leave the country.
Russian troops continue to storm eastern Ukraine
Russian forces continued their attacks on eastern Ukraine throughout the day, the Ukrainian General Staff reported at a briefing on Monday evening.
The “focus of the day” was the area around Kurakhove on the edge of the Donbass region, the staff said. During the day, 26 Russian attacks were repelled by the Ukrainian defenders, the staff said.
There was also heavy fighting around Pokrovsk, which has been the subject of fighting for weeks. Russian units made 24 attempts to break through Ukrainian defence lines. These attempts were also repelled by Kiev troops, the report said. However, the details could not be independently verified.
Heavy fighting also took place between Russian and Ukrainian units in the western Russian region of Kursk. In early August, Ukrainian units carried out a surprise attack there.
Ukrainian airborne troops posted a video on Facebook showing the destruction of a Russian tank in an unnamed village in the region. This video, too, could not be independently verified.
Eight wounded in shelling of Belgorod
Earlier, eight people were wounded in a shelling of the western Russian city of Belgorod, near the border with Ukraine, the regional governor said on Monday.
“One of the injured is in critical condition, while the others have moderate injuries,” Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on his Telegram channel.
He said a private home and “more than 15 vehicles” were destroyed by attacks by Ukrainian forces on Monday morning.
In total, four residential buildings were damaged, with broken windows and bullet holes in the facade and roof. In addition, a gas pipeline was hit, Gladkov wrote.
The Russian military has not yet commented on the Ukrainian attacks in the Belgorod region.
Belgorod is near the Ukrainian city of Kharkov, where a Russian guided bomb killed one person and wounded at least 42 others on Sunday.
Since Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow has systematically attacked Ukrainian territory with drones and missiles.
Cities and civilian infrastructure are regularly affected.
Meanwhile, Russian border regions are increasingly reporting shelling from Ukraine, but the scale of casualties and damage is far smaller than the deaths and destruction caused by Moscow.
Moscow urges UN, Red Cross to reject Kiev invitation to Kursk
Ukraine, while trying to fend off a full-scale invasion, has also launched a surprise attack on the border in the Russian region of Kursk, with the aim of starting negotiations and exchanging prisoners.
Kiev invited the United Nations and the Red Cross to take part in an inspection of areas in Kursk, some of which are partially under the control of Ukrainian troops.
Moscow called on the UN and the Red Cross to refuse the invitation, calling it a provocation.
“We expect that such provocative statements will not be
accepted by the addressees. This is a pure provocation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in Moscow on Monday.
The Russian government was able to present its views to the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, who had just arrived in Moscow on a previously planned visit.
She wanted to talk confidentially with government representatives about the humanitarian consequences of the “international armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine,” the ICRC said.
The ICRC is strictly neutral and refrains from passing judgment on conflicts. Instead, it supports civilians and prisoners in armed conflicts, with a focus on respect for international law, prisoners of war and clarifying the fate of missing persons.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry previously stated that the Ukrainian armed forces respect the rights of the population in the occupied Kursk area and are doing everything possible to protect the civilian population from the consequences of the fighting.
Ukraine asked for UN assistance in providing humanitarian aid, it said, calling on the Red Cross to join the mission in a letter posted on the Foreign Ministry website.