Russia has lost “tens of thousands” of troops and it is not yet clear how they will seek to recruit more soldiers, the latest British intelligence update said.

The latest UK Ministry of Defence briefing said that President Vladimir Putin signed a decree this week to increase the size of the armed forces from 1.9 million to 2.04 million in the wake of the country’s invasion of Ukraine, now in its sixth month.

The briefing said that under the Russian legislation now in place, the decree is unlikely to make “substantive progress” towards increasing Russia’s combat power.

This is because Russia has lost tens of thousands of troops; very few new contract servicemen are being recruited; and conscripts are technically not obliged to serve outside of Russian territory.

However it “remains unclear” how Russia will try to fill its increase in armed forces members, said the MoD.

It could recruit more volunteer “contract” soldiers or lift annual targets for conscriptions, the update added.           

Russia claims it has hit workshops at the Motor Sich factory in the Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine.

The facility is where helicopters for the Ukrainian air force are being repaired, the defence ministry said.

In an update on the conflict, Russia’s defence ministry said:

The high-precision weapons of the Russian Aerospace Forces in the city of Zaporozhye, on the territory of the Motor Sich plant, hit the production shops, in which the helicopters of the Ukrainian Air Force were repaired.

They also claimed that Ukrainian forces have been shelling the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant over the past two days.

As we reported earlier, Ukraine and Russia continue to accuse each other of shelling near Europe’s largest nuclear facility in what has become a dangerous flashpoint in the war amid concerns about the potential for a radiation leak.