Day: September 16, 2024

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday 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. Putin’s decree, published on the official government website, will take effect Dec. 1. It sets the overall number of Russian military personnel at nearly 2.4 million, including 1.5 million troops, and orders the government to provide the necessary funding.

An attack on Kyiv early Monday was the eighth on the Ukrainian capital in about two weeks, officials said, adding that most of the incoming Russian drones had been intercepted.