Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered another military expansion, adding 15,500 military personnel as Moscow’s battlefield advances in Ukraine have stalled after more than four and a half years of fighting. Putin signed the decree on Sunday, marking the fourth time this year the president has increased the authorised size of the Russian military. Together, the orders have added 47,860 military personnel since March.
This comes as both sides have increasingly been relying on drones and long-range strikes against each other. Ukraine, meanwhile, has repeatedly accused Moscow of preparing another mobilisation – something Putin has dismissed as Ukrainian “disinformation”. So why has Putin issued this decree, and where is the conflict headed?
It did not elaborate on why the additional troops were needed or how they would be recruited. Putin had already issued orders expanding the military in March, June and July. Andrei Kortunov, director general of the Russian International Affairs Council, dubbed the expansion technical.
It is technical in the sense that another 15,000 will not change the conflict dynamics,” he told Al Jazeera. Ukraine expert Olena Halushka says Russia’s war effort is not going according to plan. Yet a year afterwards, the situation on the battlefield today shows absolutely the opposite,” Halushka, a board member at the Anti-Corruption Action Centre in Kyiv, told Al Jazeera.
Russia’s advances have slowed sharply this year, with the widespread use of drones making large concentrations and rapid movements of troops increasingly dangerous. Ukraine’s military said earlier this month that Russian losses in 2026 had surpassed 300,000, and estimated that Moscow suffered more than 20,000 casualties in the first half of September alone. Al Jazeera could not independently verify those figures.
The latest decrees also come as Ukraine repeatedly claims Moscow is looking outside Russia to bolster its forces and is preparing another mobilisation, a claim Russia denies. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday said that more than 8,000 North Korean soldiers were currently in Russia and preparations were under way to deploy another 10,000. North Korea has already sent an estimated 14,000 to 15,000 soldiers to support Russia since 2024, according to Ukrainian and South Korean estimates.
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