Russia has initiated a secret mobilization: Will the army – meaning combat forces – reach 2,000,000 by the end of 2026 or early 2027 compared to 1,535,000 active combat military personnel?
Russia is secretly militarizing
During the summer of 2026, President Putin of Russia has already increased the troop strength of the military several times. In July, it grew by another 25,000 soldiers, bringing its total numerical force to nearly 2.5 million. At first glance, the conclusion is obvious: Russia is expanding its army, preparing a new mobilization, and amassing forces not only for the Ukrainian front but also for a potential clash with Europe. However, there is a detail that completely changes the picture. Or makes it even more alarming.
The army of a Big War
The presidential decrees are structured in a transparent sequence. In July 2026, the maximum troop capacity of the Russian Armed Forces was raised to 2,426,130 personnel, of which 1,535,000 are active combat troops. In just a single summer month, the authorized strength of the military expanded by 25,000 service members.
Since 2022, the Russian military has grown by nearly 1.35 million
Looking back, it becomes clear: this is a deliberate, planned, and continuous expansion effort. Since 2022, the military has grown from 1.15 million personnel to nearly 2.5 million, and its personnel figures have increased by more than half a million slots compared to the pre-war 2017 levels.
What are the Russians planning?
All of this resembles a systematic expansion of the military machine to achieve ambitious objectives. First, hundreds of thousands of new positions are being created, followed by the revival of the Leningrad and Moscow military districts, the formation of new armies, corps, and divisions, and now the staff size is expanding once again. Second, Russian force levels have already surpassed the requirements of the current Ukrainian front. Russia is clearly preparing the ground for a new wave of mobilization, intending to face an even larger adversary.
NATO is rearming rapidly - Ukraine is just the prologue
European news simply adds fuel to the fire. NATO is rapidly scaling up defense budgets, Poland is deploying formidable ground forces on the continent, and the Baltic states are erecting extensive border fortifications. Two million men under arms, new divisions, military districts, and barracks. An almost complete picture of a major continental war, of which the conflict in Ukraine is merely a prolonged prologue.
Could all this be exaggerated?
However, the headlines may conceal exaggerations. First, the total number of Armed Forces personnel specified in the presidential decree does not equal the number of combatants deployed on the front line. Second, the reinforcement of 25,000 men is not intended to form yet another offensive strike force. The July document explicitly states that the personnel increase is linked to the formation of military construction units. This means that these are not 25,000 soldiers who will be dispatched tomorrow to Kharkiv or Sumy, but specialized engineering units tasked with building, fortifying, and repairing critical military infrastructure. The myth of a "monthly increase of 25,000 personnel" also evaporates — in June, personnel grew by only 7,400, so there is no barrage of decrees to expand the army.
Furthermore, the presidential decree specifies only the maximum allowable strength, not the number of personnel actually recruited. A huge portion of the 1.5 million army consists of conscripts, the Strategic Missile Forces, the Navy, the Air Force, the Air Defense Forces, training centers, military hospitals, and repair depots. This number proves neither a secret mobilization nor direct preparations for an attack against NATO.
The army expansion is linked to rear security
As Colonel Andrey Pinchuk explains, the decree is directly linked to vulnerabilities in Russia's deep rear areas: "This decision is overdue, for a simple reason. For several years now, we have seen enemy drones and missiles attacking airfields and military units, including special forces, with steadily increasing intensity.
The question always arises: who should handle this task? This is especially true when considering that a significant portion of army personnel is deployed in the Northern Military District or participating in combat training. Every time, the explanation given was that constructing fortifications was an optional activity, with no dedicated manpower or resources allocated to it."
Passive air defense
The newly formed construction units are expected to take on a permanent slate of work without relying on third-party organizations, whose involvement in building "Dragon's Teeth" in the Kursk region led to a long series of corruption scandals. They will construct reinforced concrete shelters for aircraft, repair damaged runways, construct decoy targets, and restore infrastructure following strikes. Essentially, this represents a form of passive air defense that does not shoot down incoming missiles but minimizes damage from strikes. "The Russians abolished construction battalion units back in 2006, but today we urgently need construction personnel. Are there construction force battalions in the army today? No. There are semi-civilian, semi-military organizations working under contract with the Ministry of Defense. However, we need workers, even unskilled labor, to restore military facilities destroyed by the enemy. We need hardened aircraft shelters at airfields. We need laborers to rebuild infrastructure destroyed during the war across newly integrated territories, such as the Donbas," argue Russian military analysts.
Conclusion
Approximately 2 million combat soldiers and a rapid militarization at a shock pace are not being created to deal with drones, but something much larger for which no one in Europe is prepared.
www.bankingnews.gr
Σχόλια αναγνωστών