Authorities in the city of Moscow are offering a record signing-on bonus for new recruits to fight in Ukraine, in the latest sign of a scramble to boost Russian troop numbers.
The financial sweetener comes as President Vladimir Putin struggles to recruit soldiers for his army as Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine grinds on in its third year.
Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin introduced the one-time signing bonus of 1.9 million rubles (about $22,000) for city residents who join the military, according to a statement on Tuesday.
Anyone taking up the offer would earn as much as 5.2 million rubles ($59,600) in their first year of service, the statement added.
Those willing to join the fight in Ukraine can also receive one-time cash payments of about $5,690-$11,390 for injuries, “depending on the severity,” and the family of a soldier killed in action could be paid $34,150.
While Russia’s casualty numbers remain shrouded in secrecy, estimates say the death toll among troops is high. More than 70,000 soldiers were likely killed or wounded in May and June alone, the UK defense ministry said in an update on July 12, as the Russian army faced high losses on a new front in the Kharkiv region.
It is estimated that Russia has lost 87% of the active-duty ground troops it had prior to launching its invasion of Ukraine and two-thirds of its pre-invasion tanks, a source familiar with a declassified US intelligence assessment provided to Congress told CNN in December last year.
Social media is filled with video footage taken by drones of Russian troops being killed or left with life-changing injuries in what soldiers grimly call “meat grinder” battles against Ukrainian defenders. Ukrainian soldiers have often spoken of how their outnumbered forced face so-called human wave assaults from an enemy whose commanders appear happy to tolerate brutal attrition rates.
As personnel deaths mount, the Kremlin is looking all over the place to find fighters to send to the front.
Putin has ordered the country’s military to increase troop numbers by 170,000, which would take the overall number of Russian military personnel to more than 2.2 million, including 1.32 million troops, according to a decree published by the Kremlin in December.
That equates to boosting the Russian army’s size by 15% and marks the second such expansion of the army since Putin launched its invasion.
Putin initially ordered an immediate “partial mobilization” of Russian citizens in September 2022 following a string of defeats that caused recriminations in Moscow. The mobilization meant citizens who were military reservists could be called up and that those with military experience were subject to conscription.
The conscription campaign led to fierce demonstrations – particularly in Russia’s ethnic minority regions where mobilization efforts were concentrated – and has sparked an exodus of military-age men fleeing the country to avoid joining the war.
Although the mobilization campaign was suspended in November 2022 after officials said the target of recruiting 300,000 personnel had been met, Russia has been recruiting fighters beyond its borders to fight in Ukraine.
Russia has recruited as many as 15,000 Nepalis to fight its war in Ukraine, with many of them left traumatized, while an unknown number remain missing or possibly dead. A Nepali soldier who spoke to CNN said Afghan, Indian, Congolese and Egyptian recruits were among those being trained in Russia’s military academies for foreign fighters.