Russia lays out plans to boost size of military to 1.5 million

The Russian Defense Ministry on Tuesday detailed its plans to expand the Russian armed forces over the next few years, aiming to reach 1.5 million soldiers by 2026.

The expansion of the armed forces, initially announced in December, will occur over several years, from 2023 to 2026, according to the Russian state-run news agency TASS. Russia had previously ordered a troop increase from 137,000 to 1.15 million in August.

The plans come as Russia has faced numerous setbacks on the battlefield in Ukraine. The Kremlin mobilized hundreds of thousands of reservists late last year in a bid to turn the tide of the war it still calls a “special military operation.”

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced two new military districts will also be formed in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and an army corps will be created in the Republic of Karelia along Russia’s border with Finland, The Wall Street Journal reported. The focus on Karelia comes after both Finland and Sweden have sought to join NATO.

Russia also aims to increase “the combat capabilities of the Navy, the Aerospace Forces and the Strategic Rocket Forces,” TASS reported.

“Only by strengthening the key structural components of the Armed Forces is it possible to guarantee the military security of the state and protect new entities and critical facilities of the Russian Federation,” Shoigu said, according to Reuters.

The Kremlin justified the buildup by pointing to what it deemed as the West’s “proxy war” against Russia, in an apparent reference to the vast financial and military support that Western nations have provided to Ukraine in the nearly 11 months since Russia launched its invasion.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov specifically noted the West’s “indirect involvement in military activities and elements of an economic war, a financial war, legal warfare, steps that go beyond the legal field and so on,” according to TASS.

Since launching its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has been forced to focus its on-the-ground forces largely on battles in the east, after initially launching attacks on the capital city of Kyiv.

Last week, the Kremlin claimed that it had seized the small salt mining town of Soledar in a rare but costly win for Russia.

However, Ukrainian forces have managed to gain territory in several regions that Russian President Vladimir Putin formally annexed last fall, including the major city of Kherson, and have continued to defend the strategic city of Bakhmut in the east despite months of heavy Russian attacks.