Russia beating military recruitment objectives with cash bonuses, new laws

• A senior Ukrainian official said that Russia had beat its recruitment goal in 2024 and that still does it in 2025.
• It was after Moscow has already increased its goal to 430,000 soldiers last year.
• This occurs while Russia has paid money into registration bonuses and adopted laws to recruit crime suspects.

Ukraine’s deputy head of military intelligence said Russia exceeded its recruitment objectives, affirming Moscow’s previous claim to hire more than 440,000 soldiers in 2024.

This success of recruitment is expected to continue in 2025, Major-General Vadim Skibitsky said on Monday in an interview published by the RBC Ukraine news agency.

“In January, they carried out their recruitment plans by 107%,” said Skibitsky. “This question remains relevant and the Russian authorities have no problem with the endowment of their troops and the realization of losses.”

Skibitsky said Russia initially set a hiring target of 380,000 soldiers in 2024, but reported to 430,000 recruits. And beat this goal, he added.

In December, Dmitry Medvedev, president of the Russian Security Council, said that Moscow had signed contracts with 440,000 new soldiers in 2024.

Skibitsky confirmed this number in its interview on Monday and said that Russia officially planned to recruit 343,000 other soldiers in 2025.

“But on the basis of the 2024 experience, we know that these plans inevitably change, in the ascending direction,” he said.

Recruitment on this scale allows Russia to continue to fight intensely in Ukraine, Skibitsky said.

“It is important to understand that almost 80% of people recruited under contract are used to replace combat losses,” he told RBC Ukraine.

These reported figures arise as the Kremlin has paid money into unique recruitment bonuses – just one of the many ways to push its economy and go to defense.

In July, Russian chief Vladimir Putin signed a decree that more than doubled the basic registration bonus from 195,000 rubles to 400,000 rubles for the rest of 2024.

Payment of 400,000 rubles is now worth around $ 4,450. However, some regions increased their premiums to almost 2 million rubles last year, putting them on equality with the payments of the authentication of the American army.

“For the Russian Federation, these are very important sums,” Skibitsky told RBC Ukraine.

Federal statistics of the Russian government in December cited the average monthly salary in the country as 86,500 rubles.

Ukraine expects Russia to also considerably increase the number of soldiers it recruits from prisons or criminal trials.

Russia is already actively recruiting in prisons, Putin signed a bill in October allowing those who are faced with criminal accusations to avoid their trials or convictions if they enlisted in the army.

Skibitsky said Russia’s plans for 2025 include 30% of its forces made up of “special contingents”, which describe units that feed detainees or soldiers who have registered to avoid accusations.

This represents 15% of its forces involving such troops last year, said Skibitsky.

“This question already arises for the general staff of the armed forces of the Russian Federation-what to do with these people and how to work with them,” he said.

Analysts of the Think Tank Institute based in Washington for the study of war wrote that Russia probably increased its recruitment objective in 2024 because it was at this time that it intensified the intensity of its aggressions in Ukraine.

Moscow has, in the past year, started throwing thousands of men daily in Ukrainian positions in ground assaults, undergoing high victims but also put pressure on kyiv’s tired forces on the front lines.

ISW analysts have written that Russia will probably have to increase its recruitment quota this year to maintain this strategy.

“Continuous Western Military Aid would help Ukrainian forces inflict additional losses on the Russian army which would probably intensify the economic and military problems of Russia and force Putin to make concessions in significant negotiations in 2025,” they wrote.