Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree raising the authorized strength of Russia's Armed Forces to 2,441,630 personnel, including 1,550,500 active-duty troops — the fourth expansion of the Russian military this calendar year. Published on September 28, the order landed days after Putin insisted Moscow is “not preparing” for war with Europe, and as Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky warns that Russia is quietly assembling fresh manpower for a longer war — including another 10,000 North Korean soldiers.
The decree in detail
The decree sets the total authorized headcount of the Russian Armed Forces at 2,441,630, of whom 1,550,500 are military servicemembers, Russian news agencies reported — 15,500 more active troops than the previous authorization of 1,535,000, which had set the total force at 2,426,130, according to The Moscow Times.
The cadence is relentless. In March, Putin set the overall military workforce at 2,391,770, including 1,502,640 active soldiers. A June 12 order raised active numbers to 1,510,000. A late-July decree added 25,000 more for military construction units. September's order is the fourth expansion this year — and the seventh since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Money follows manpower: draft budget projections for 2027 put Russian defense allocations at 17.1 trillion rubles, about $223.6 billion — 35 percent of all federal expenditure, according to UNITED24 Media.
“Not preparing for war” — the Kremlin's parallel message
Days before signing the decree, Putin flatly denied Russia was preparing to widen the conflict. “I want to emphasize once again that we are not preparing for any military action against Europe,” he said. “We have no such plans, and, most importantly, there are no grounds for them.”
He accused European governments of deliberately escalating tensions by warning their citizens to prepare for a possible Russian attack, and claimed the rights of Russian speakers were being violated in the Baltic states — while insisting Moscow would respond only through humanitarian measures and international law.
Zelensky has repeatedly rejected that reassurance, warning international allies of the continuing risk of further Russian aggression against European nations. The pattern is now familiar: each Kremlin denial of hostile intent is followed by a larger army on paper.
Zelensky: another 10,000 North Koreans being prepared
While Putin signs decrees, Zelensky says Russia is also importing soldiers. On Monday, the Ukrainian president said more than 8,000 North Korean troops are currently on Russian territory and preparations are underway to deploy another 10,000, Reuters reported. Citing new defense intelligence, Zelensky said the additional troops were “being selected for training and subsequent deployment to Russia.”
Ukrainian and South Korean estimates put total North Korean deployments in support of Russia since 2024 at 14,000 to 15,000, most in the Kursk region, where they are widely credited with helping Russia reclaim ground seized by Ukraine. Pyongyang has also supplied Russia with millions of artillery and mortar rounds, ballistic missiles, long-range artillery systems and multiple-launch rocket systems.
Zelensky further claimed Moscow is paying for the manpower with military technology. “Production of shahed-type attack drones has been established in North Korea with Russian technical support,” he said, according to a transcript on the Ukrainian presidential website. The detail carries weight in Kyiv, where the interception rate against Russia's new jet-powered Shahed drones is just 57 percent and new interceptor systems are still being tested.
What the buildup points to
Zelensky said in a recent evening address that Russia has “already begun an additional mobilization effort,” with Ukrainian intelligence reporting plans to mobilize 300,000 personnel this year — on top of separate warnings of rolling mobilization waves that could reach 600,000 troops across 2026 and 2027.
Taken together — the decree, the budget, the mobilization machinery and the North Korean pipeline — the picture is of a Kremlin staffing for a protracted war rather than an off-ramp: formal force expansions at home, foreign manpower from abroad.
For Ukraine, the message to its partners is unchanged: the threat is growing, not receding, and air defenses, sanctions pressure and sustained military support remain the only language Moscow's buildup understands.
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