The pace of recruiting contract soldiers into the Russian army has fallen by 10%, despite record payments

The pace of recruiting contract soldiers into the Russian army has fallen by 10%, despite record payments

Recruitment of contract soldiers into the Russian army is declining despite higher financial bonuses for being sent to the front and cases of forced mobilization in 18 Russian regions.

From January to August 2026, 234,000 people signed contracts with the Defense Ministry, according to calculations by the German Institute for International Security Affairs. The pace of recruitment fell by 10%, and the number of new contract soldiers was down by 26,000 compared with the same period in 2025.

At the same time, the size of the one-time contract payment in Russian regions has reached almost 1.8 million rubles. The largest bonus, 3.4 million rubles, is now being offered by Volgograd Region.

💜Earlier, Verstka wrote that Russia had lost its advantage at the front, while sources in the authorities were talking about the possibility of a new mobilization.

Together with Important Stories, Verstka studied closed statistics, spoke with sources close to the Presidential Administration and the security bloc, and found that the authorities are discussing radical measures, including rotation of reservists or a new wave of mobilization.

Read about these and other possible scenarios on Verstka’s website (with a VPN):

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😘 More important Verstka stories here

Verstka

“The idiots willing to do it for money have run out”: how Russian authorities are trying to solve the shortage of contract soldiers

They are discussing various scenarios, up to the rotation of reservists and mobilization