“Everything Is Stably Terrible”: Russia’s Contract Soldier Recruitment Drops by One-Third

Russia's recruitment of contract soldiers for its war against Ukraine collapsed by roughly a third this spring, leaving frontline units badly understaffed and pushing the Kremlin to weigh a new wave of mobilization.

The findings come from an investigation published on June 24 by the independent Russian outlet Verstka and the investigative team Vazhnye Istorii, based on internal data, budget records, and dozens of interviews with soldiers, recruiters, and officials.

The shortfall is hollowing out Russia's fighting force just as its advance has stalled, narrowing the Kremlin's options to coercion, foreign recruits, or a politically risky mobilization.

To fill the gap, regional authorities have raised recruiter payments to record levels and disguised frontline service as safe rear work, advertising jobs as drivers, guards, and even nonexistent "peacekeeper" posts.

"We have no people here; the fools willing to go for money have run out," one soldier told Verstka. "So it's either mobilization or a deal with loss of face."

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War in Ukraine

Russia Breaks New Records in Losing Troops and Can’t Replace Them Fast Enough

May 13, 2026 19:06

In Moscow, the capital, 1,708 contract soldiers were sent to the front in April and 1,378 in May—about a thousand fewer each month than a year earlier—and a source in the mayor's office noted the decline continued into June.

Nationwide, recruitment in the final quarter of 2025 fell by roughly a third from a year earlier, Vazhnye Istorii calculated from federal budget spending.

"Everything is stably terrible with us; few people are coming, and even fewer are motivated," a source in the Moscow mayor's office told Verstka. Recruiters describe a steep drop in quality, with many new arrivals pulled from prisons, the streets, and detention rather than volunteering.

Some units are manned at 30% to 40% of strength, and the slowdown is now visible at the front, where Russia's advance has fallen to its weakest territorial gains in years.

That pressure has begun spilling into the streets. In mid-June, authorities staged mass round-ups of draft-eligible men in the city of Penza, manning checkpoints with traffic police, masked officers, and enlistment officials and pressing those detained to sign military contracts, as residents warned one another to keep male relatives indoors.

At the same time, Russia’s total personnel losses since the start of the full-scale invasion have reached approximately 1,395,790, with another 1,260 troops reported killed or wounded over the past day, according to Ukraine’s General Staff.

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