Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree to boost the army by 15,500 troops in the fourth such order this year.

“The authorised … strength of the Russian armed forces is to be set at 2,441,630 units, including 1,550,500 military personnel,” the decree said.

Putin previously signed decrees boosting the army’s size in March, June and July. The combined increase since March amounts to 47,860 soldiers.

Russia’s president did not state the reason for the decision, but it has been taken against the backdrop of rising losses in Moscow’s full-scale war in Ukraine.

This year, Russian advances on the battlefield have slowed, as widespread drone use has made rapid movement of large troop units almost impossible. In recent weeks, reports have also emerged of Ukrainian breakthroughs on certain sections of the front.

The last time Putin announced a “partial mobilisation” of reservists was in September 2022 after a series of setbacks at the front. That decree remains in force.

Signs of a new mobilisation?

In August, Ukraine’s intelligence services reported that Moscow plans to call up up to 300,000 people this year for deployment to the front, and the same number again next year.

A number of analysts, citing data on preparatory measures by Russian authorities on the ground, predicted a new wave of mobilisation as soon as this autumn, immediately after elections to the State Duma, triggering renewed fears among ordinary Russians of being dragged to the front and a surge of interest in emigration.

Putin dismissed these rumours as “utter nonsense”. The Kremlin insisted that contract soldiers and volunteers were meeting the needs of Russia’s armed forces, while independent analysts say recruitment among them continues to shrink despite promises of large financial rewards.

“In essence, Russia has already begun additional mobilisation, it is expanding the scale of recruitment to its ranks, using various methods for this,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday, commenting on Putin’s decree in a video address published on X.

“It also plans to increase the number of foreigners, and it is important that the governments of the countries from which Russia recruits people into its ranks counteract this,” he added.

Zelenskyy said that he has new data indicating that North Korea is preparing to send 10,000 of its soldiers to Russia, in addition to the 8,000 who have already been deployed there.