In a decree published on the Kremlin's website, 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.

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 and be second only to China in size.

The move, the third time Putin has expanded the army's ranks since sending his military into Ukraine in February 2022, comes as Russian forces push forward in eastern Ukraine on parts of a vast 1,000 km (627-mile) frontline and try to eject Ukrainian forces from Russia's Kursk region.

Although Russia has a population more than three times larger than Ukraine's and has been successfully recruiting volunteers on lucrative contracts to fight in Ukraine, it has - like Kyiv's forces - been sustaining heavy battlefield losses, and there is no sign of the war ending any time soon.

Putin has previously ordered two official increases in the number of combat troops since embarking on the full-scale invasion of Ukraine - by 137,000 and 170,000 respectively.

In addition, Russia mobilized over 300,000 soldiers in September and October 2022 in an exercise which prompted tens of thousands of draft-age men to flee the country. The Kremlin has said that no new mobilization is planned for now, however, and that the idea is to continue to rely on volunteers signing up to fight in Ukraine.