Desperate Putin signs decree increasing armed forces to 2.4million as thousands continue to die on meatgrinder Ukraine frontline

Vladimir Putin on Monday signed an executive order expanding the nation's total military personnel to 2,441,630, which raises the number of active-duty troops to 1.55 million.

The expansion, which follows a similar increase ordered in August, will see the number of active servicemen increase by 15,500.

It comes as Western intelligence services suggest Russia is losing 6,000 more soldiers than it can recruit every month. 

Figures produced by Ukraine, meanwhile, estimate that Russia has lost more than 1.5million troops - with as many as 450,000 deaths - since 2022.

Russia's battlefield advances have slowed this year, as widespread drone use on the front has made swift, large-scale troop movements almost impossible.

Ukraine has repeatedly accused Russia of preparing for another military call-up, a suggestion that Putin has called Ukrainian 'disinformation'.

In August, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukrainian intelligence indicated that the Kremlin planned to mobilise another 300,000 soldiers after the elections.

'We believe it will not happen in the central cities. But I don't think they will be able to hide it very well,' he said.

Vladimir Putin on Monday signed an executive order expanding the nation's total military personnel to 2,441,630

Western intelligence services suggest Russia is losing 6,000 more soldiers than it can recruit every month (Pictured: Russian soldiers)

Ukraine's spy chief Lieutenant General Oleh Ivashchenko claimed earlier this month that a loss of troops, dwindling morale and a struggling economy may impact Russia's ability to wage war by 2028.

He said: 'Russia recruits roughly 1,000 people every day, sometimes 1,200, but look at these casualty figures. Yesterday it was 1,410, the day before it was 1,511. Of those, around 60 per cent are killed in action.'

Another 18 months of fighting would likely result in a further 765,800 Russian casualties, with 459,480 dead and 306,320 wounded, statistics suggest.

The announcement by the Kremlin comes just days after Putin's United Russia party won a record supermajority in the Duma (Russian Parliament), after a tightly controlled three-day election without parties critical of the Kremlin or the war in Ukraine.

Preliminary results showed United Russia – which has dominated Russian politics for 25 years – won 355 of the Duma's 450 seats.

The result handed Putin's party an increased majority and beat its previous record of 343 seats – giving it a free hand for constitutional changes.

The Kremlin said the first parliamentary election since Moscow sent troops to Ukraine in 2022 showed Russians were united around Putin, who has been in power since New Year's Eve 1999.

The conflict has killed hundreds of thousands, displaced millions in Ukraine and hit ordinary lives in Russia more than ever this year

Forty-nine veterans who fought for Moscow in Ukraine are expected to enter parliament to represent United Russia, the party told Russian state media.

The Kremlin has sought to promote soldiers who fought in Ukraine into positions of authority when they return, with Moscow glorifying its troops.

Meanwhile, the war rages on, with Russian strikes pummeling Ukraine on Tuesday after hitting the National Academy of Sciences in the historic heart of Kyiv, in the latest deadly attack on the Ukrainian capital.

Video footage shared online appeared to show a high-speed drone smashing into the National Academy of Sciences at a sharp angle, exploding and sending acrid smoke into the blue sky above.

People were seen leaning out of windows as bright orange flames engulfed part of the building.

Kyiv cultural sites, government buildings and schools have all been targeted before, according to Ukrainian authorities.

The academy called the attack 'Russian terror' and 'barbarity', targeting 'peaceful people who were simply at their workplaces... Ukrainian science, education and culture'.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said a separate strike in the capital hit a medical facility.

Elsewhere, Russian strikes killed four and wounded at least 19 at a business centre in the central city of Dnipro, while authorities reported an unspecified number of fatalities in a strike on a residential area in eastern Kharkiv.

Prime Minister Sergiy Koretsky said Russian forces damaged an ice cream factory in the Zhytomyr region west of Kyiv, and residential buildings in Sumy, in the north, Rivne, in the northwest, and southern Odesa.

Kyiv cultural sites, government buildings and schools have all been targeted before, according to Ukrainian authorities

People were seen leaning out of windows as bright orange flames engulfed part of the building

In Zaporizhzhia in southeastern Ukraine, strikes wounded 30 civilians, three of them seriously, the regional military administration said.

A Russian jet-powered drone also struck a Ukrainian village near the Polish border earlier Monday, damaging a border checkpoint, a regional Ukrainian official said.

Russia has been deploying newer jet-powered drones that move faster and are harder to intercept than traditional models, based on Iranian Shahed drones.

Zelensky renewed his appeal last week to Ukraine's Western allies to step up their military support, including for US-made Patriot interceptors capable of downing powerful ballistic missiles.

Koretsky said on Monday that Ukraine will postpone some spending commitments, including reconstruction work, because of delays in receiving aid from its foreign backers.

The plea for aide comes as Ukrainians consider their options with winter approaching, after Russian attacks on energy infrastructure last year cut power and heating as temperatures plunged to as low as -20C.

In an interview with Ukrainian television broadcast on Sunday, Koretsky stopped short of saying that all residents in cities should leave before winter sets in, calling that an 'extreme step'.

But he suggested that vulnerable people should relocate, to avoid overloading the hard-pressed emergency services as they deal with the aftermath of the relentless Russian strikes.