MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin has increased the size of the country's military for the third time since the February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine by boosting the overall number to 2.389 million, according to a presidential decree issued on Monday.
The number of soldiers is to rise to 1.5 million, the decree said. In December, Putin raised the military's target strength to 2.2 million, with 1.33 million of them being soldiers.
The new target raises the number in the military by 50% compared with a little over 1 million at the start of the Kremlin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
There was no immediate reaction to the new figures from the Defense Ministry in Moscow. At the last increase, the ministry insisted the increase would be covered by recruiting more volunteers.
In September 2022, Putin ordered a partial mobilization in response to a series of military defeats in the war, which led to widespread dissatisfaction among the population and prompted many young men to leave the country.
Russian troops continue to storm eastern Ukraine
Throughout the day, Russian troops have continued their storming attacks in eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian General Staff reported in Monday's evening briefing.
The "focus of the day" was the area around Kurakhove on the edge of the Donbass region, the staff said. Throughout the day, there were 26 Russian attacks repelled by the Ukrainian defenders, it said.
There was also heavy fighting around Pokrovsk, which has been contested for weeks, as Russian units made 24 attempts to break through the Ukrainian defense lines, though these too were repelled by Kyiv's forces, the report said, in details that could not be independently verified.
There were also fierce battles between Russian and Ukrainian units in the western Russian region of Kursk, where Ukrainian units launched a surprise attack in early August.
Ukrainian airborne troops released a video on Facebook showing the destruction of a Russian tank in an unnamed village in the region, which also could not be independently verified.
Eight injured in shelling of Belgorod
Earlier, eight people were injured in the shelling of the western Russian city of Belgorod near the border with Ukraine, the regional governor said on Monday.
"One of the injured is in critical condition, while the others have sustained moderate injuries," Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on his Telegram channel.
He said that a private residence and "over 15 vehicles" were destroyed in attacks by Ukrainian forces early Monday.
In total, four residential buildings were damaged, with broken windows and bullet holes in the facade and roof. Additionally, a gas pipeline was hit, Gladkov wrote.
The Russian military has not yet commented on the Ukrainian attacks in the Belgorod region.
Belgorod is located near the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, where on Sunday a Russian guided bomb killed one person and injured at least 42 others.
Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, Moscow has systematically targeted Ukrainian territory with drone and missile attacks.
Cities and civilian infrastructure have been frequently struck.
Meanwhile, Russian border regions are increasingly reporting shelling from the Ukrainian side, though the scale of casualties and damage is much smaller in extent than the deaths and destruction inflicted by Moscow.
Moscow urges UN, Red Cross to decline Kyiv's invitation to Kursk
Ukraine, as it fends off the full-scale invasion, has also launched a surprise cross-border offensive in the Russian region of Kursk, in a bid to bring about negotiations and also carry out prisoner exchanges.
Kyiv invited the United Nations and the Red Cross to join an inspection of areas in Kursk, some of which are partially controlled by Ukrainian troops.
Moscow called on the U.N. and Red Cross to refuse and described the invitation as a provocation.
"We expect that such provocative statements will not be accepted by the addressees. This is a pure provocation," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday in Moscow.
The Russian government was able to lodge its views with International Committee of the Red Cross President Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, who had just arrived in Moscow for a visit that was previously planned.
She wanted to talk to government representatives in confidence about the humanitarian consequences of the "international armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine," the ICRC said.
The ICRC is strictly neutral and refrains from judging any conflict, instead supporting civilians and prisoners in armed conflicts, with a focus on respect for international law, prisoners of war and clarifying the fate of missing people.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry earlier stated that Ukraine's forces were observing the rights of the people in the occupied zone of Kursk and were doing everything in their power to protect the civilian population from the effects of combat.
Ukraine was asking for U.N. assistance in providing humanitarian aid, it said. It called on the Red Cross to join the mission in a letter published on the Foreign Ministry website.
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