Russian State owned media has reported that President Putin has signed a decree this morning to increase to size of the Armed Forces from 1.9 to 2.04 million. However, an immediate increase, in the form of conscription will come in the form of 137,000 service members directly into the combatant forces of the Russian Ground Forces and Aerospace Forces.

This report comes two months after the initial reporting that prisoners in Russia as well as outlying autonomous regions were being recruited to fight in Ukraine. According to an official estimate from the U.S. government, the Russian Federation has probably lost about 80,000 troops to injury and death in Ukraine since the February 24th invasion. However, President Putin has hidden these numbers and the true scope of the “special military operations”, by not enforcing a general mobilization. The impacts of the conflict however, seem to have reached a point where he cannot hide the need for ground troops.

This conscription notice will probably create unrest in the Russian Federation as their civilians will begin to realize the war will not be over quickly and now the impacts will expand from long lines at the grocery store to actually having to fight.