The Pace of Contract Soldier Recruitment in 2024 Has Accelerated by at Least 6 Times Compared to Last Year
This follows from data on federal budget expenditures for one-time payments for the contract signing
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From April to June 2024, 92.8 thousand people received one-time payments for signing military contracts, according to federal budget expenditure data.
According to the budget, 166.2 thousand people signed contracts during the first half of 2024. Dmitry Medvedev stated that by July 2024, around 190 thousand people had joined the military on contract.
The pace of contract soldier recruitment has increased compared to 2023. Back then, Russians signed 26.7 thousand new contracts during the first half of the year — six times fewer than in 2024.
These figures may not fully reflect the exact number of recruits per quarter due to possible payment delays. For example, if one signed a contract in March but received the bonus in April, they would be included in the second-quarter statistics. This is also evidenced by the large payout in the fourth quarter of 2023. Based on this data, more than 200 thousand new contract soldiers joined the Russian army from October to December 2023. However, such recruitment numbers were not observed in reality, according to experts from the Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT).
The new data was highlighted by Janis Kluge, a researcher at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. Previously, IStories and CIT reported that the Ministry of Defense’s figures on contract soldiers may be inflated by one and a half times: by April 2024, 426 thousand Russians had received enlistment bonuses, while the ministry reported 640 thousand new contract soldiers.
To attract Russians to the war, the authorities have been increasing the enlistment bonuses. In August 2024, the federal payment increased from 195 thousand to 400 thousand rubles, and regional bonuses rose on average by four times. A source in an enlistment office told IStories that in 2023, the regions were only able to meet 50–60% of their recruitment targets for the war. Although recruitment rates have risen in 2024, it is still insufficient to compensate for the losses.