Russia’s regions are significantly increasing the amount they pay recruits, as analysts say “ideological” recruiting campaigns are no longer enough to motivate them to fight in Ukraine.
Several regions have announced in recent days that they will increase sign-up bonuses by up to 4x to increase hiring numbers.
Russia has suffered huge casualties in its war against Ukraine, with an estimated 1 million Russian soldiers killed or injured since the invasion began in earnest three and a half years ago.
Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belosov made manpower one of the military’s top priorities at a high-level defense meeting in August, stressing that human resources are “the key to supporting offensive operations.”
However, although Mr. Belousov insisted that recruitment targets were being met, Russian independent research agency IStories reported otherwise.
Some 37,900 people were contracted by the Defense Ministry in the second quarter of 2025, two-and-a-half times fewer than a year ago, the ministry said, based on official budget spending data.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a U.S.-based conflict watchdog, said Russia’s force buildup efforts are “increasingly resembling complex business models rather than ideologically driven recruitment efforts.”
ISW said in a September analyst note that Russian authorities and unofficial recruiters “continue to use financial incentives, deception and coercion” to enhance recruitment.
The government of Siberia’s Tyumen region announced on Monday that it would pay new employees a lump sum of 3 million rubles ($36,560) on top of the 400,000 rubles it will receive from the federal government, provided they register by the end of November.
The new regional allowance is a significant increase compared to the 1.9 million rubles that Tyumen recruits previously received, and is equivalent to three full years of Tyumen’s average salary, according to Russia’s Federal Statistical Service Rosstat.
Similarly, the governor of the Voronezh region in southwestern Russia announced on Telegram last week that the participation fee from the region would quadruple to 2.1 million rubles.
The local Voronezh government said recruits do not need to be from the region where they signed the document to receive the payment.
The Tambov, Krasnodar, Kurgan and Altai regions and the Republic of Tatarstan also announced significant increases to be paid on top of the monthly salaries of contract soldiers fighting in Ukraine. The pay starts at around 210,000 rubles (about 2,600,000 yen), more than twice the average wage in Russia.
