Putin seeks to expand Russian army to make it second largest in the world

Vladimir Putin has ordered the size of the regular Russian army to be increased by 180,000 troops to 1.5 million active service personnel.

If the President's demands are met, this would make the Russian army the second largest in the world after China's.

According to the Kremlin's website, Mr Putin ordered the overall size of the armed forces to be increased to 2.38 million people, of which he said 1.5 million should be active servicemen.

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According to data from the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), a leading military think tank, such an increase would see Russia leapfrog the United States and India in terms of the number of active combat soldiers it has at its disposal.

The IISS said this would put the Russian army second only to China in size as Beijing has just over two million active duty service personnel.

The move is the third time Mr Putin has expanded the army's ranks since sending his forces into Ukraine in February 2022.

Russian soldiers are currently pushing forward in eastern Ukraine on parts of a vast 1,000km to try to eject Ukrainian forces from Russia's Kursk region.

In turn, Ukraine is seeking the West's permission to use long-range weapons to strike deeper into Russia.

No such permission is believed to have been granted, although several Nato members have voiced their support.

"Putin said 'don’t send tanks'. We sent them. Putin said 'don’t send any missiles'. We sent them," said Foreign Secretary David Lammy.

"Putin threatens every few months to use nuclear weapons. What he should now do is cease his aggression and leave Ukraine."