Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree raising the number of total Russian soldiers by 137,000, bringing the total of Russian military personnel to 2.04 million.
The decree will not take effect immediately, however, as it is set to be implemented Jan. 1 of next year, according to the document published on the Russian legal portal. The decree stresses that the 137,000 new troops will all be soldiers and won’t include support personnel. The Russian army is currently comprised of 1,902,758 personnel, with 1,013,628 being servicemen, according to TASS. The most recent increase in personnel was in 2017.
Russia’s army has two main types of soldiers: conscripts and contract soldiers, the latter of which would be better recognized in Western circles as volunteers, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The military relies on contract soldiers for most active-duty situations, as conscripts are not legally allowed to be deployed outside of Russia. Russian men are drawn to become contract soldiers through lucrative offers, including a salary roughly 31 times that of conscripts, and numerous benefits.
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Though Russia has admitted to some of its officers “mistakenly” deploying conscripts in its invasion of Ukraine, it is unlikely that they have been deployed widely, especially with Russia’s hectic attempts to recruit more soldiers as mercenaries and volunteers. Wagner Group mercenaries have almost become a third kind of Russian soldier, with a report from Meduza claiming that lower commanders borrow them for local shock operations.
An analysis of Russia’s military organization by the military blog War on the Rocks found the country’s main weakness in Ukraine is a shortage of manpower. In urban areas especially, a lack of motorized infantry support can spell doom for armored columns, as seen in the early days of the war.
There is some uncertainty as to how Russia will acquire the 137,000 new personnel, whether by increasing conscription or the number of volunteers. Russian analysts claim it will be entirely an increase in contract soldiers.
“When the special military operation began, I said that the number of contract soldiers should be increased due to the exponential growth of threats along the Russian perimeter. When information appeared about the entry of Sweden and Finland into NATO, the Minister of Defense announced the formation of 12 new military units in response. It can be assumed that some of these 137,000 new servicemen will end up serving in these new units,” Russian military expert Alexei Leonkov told RIA Novosti.
“The new military equipment entering the arsenal of the Russian army has become more difficult. The people who are supposed to operate it need to be trained for at least three years. It is clear that no conscription service will cover this, therefore there will be no increase in conscription for military service,” he added.
Western analysts believe the decree is a sign of increasing desperation from the Russian high command and signals an increasing readiness to prepare for a more protracted conflict in Ukraine.
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“This is not a move that you make when you are anticipating a rapid end to your war,” Dara Massicot, a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation, told the New York Times. “This is something you do when you are making some kind of plan for a protracted conflict.”
