Putin supports increasing the size of the Russian armed forces by 30%

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday endorsed a plan to increase the size of the armed forces by more than 30 percent, saying Moscow needed to learn from and work on the problems it faced in Ukraine.

At the end-of-year conference of Russia's top military officers, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu proposed strengthening the armed forces to 1.5 million soldiers from 1.15 million.

Shoigu told Putin, at the televised event, that this was needed "to ensure the solution of problems related to Russia's military security."

He said 695,000 of the fighters must be professional contract soldiers, as opposed to conscripts who perform compulsory military service.

Putin had signed a decree just months ago to increase the number of soldiers by 137,000, as of January 1, 2023, bringing their total number to 1.15 million, and he called up more than 300,000 reservists.

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