Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the country’s military to increase its number of troops by 180,000 to a total of 1.5 million, as Moscow’s military action in Ukraine drags on for more than 2 ½ years.

Russian president Vladimir Putin can recruit all the troops he wants in his bid to make his army the second largest in the world. But, as is evident from the Russian military’s disastrous performance in Ukraine,

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.