Moscow city authorities are offering a record signing bonus to new recruits to fight in Ukraine, in the latest sign of a scramble to boost Russian troop numbers.
The financial boost comes as President Vladimir Putin struggles to recruit soldiers for his army as Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine moves into its third year.
Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin has introduced a one-time signing bonus of 1.9 million rubles (about $22,000) for city residents who enlist in the armed forces, according to a statement released on Tuesday (23).
Anyone who accepted the offer would earn up to 5.2 million rubles ($59,600) in their first year of service, the statement added.
Those wishing to join the fight in Ukraine could also receive one-off cash payments of around $5,690 to $11,390 for injuries, “depending on severity,” and the family of a soldier killed in action could receive $34,150.
While the number of Russian casualties remains shrouded in secrecy, estimates say the death toll among troops is high. More than 70,000 troops were likely killed or wounded in May and June alone, the UK Ministry of Defence said in a July 12 update, as the Russian army faced heavy losses on a new front in the Kharkiv region.
Russia is estimated to have lost 87 percent of the active-duty ground troops it had before launching its invasion of Ukraine and two-thirds of its pre-invasion tanks, it told CNN a source familiar with a US intelligence assessment provided to Congress in December last year.
Social media is awash with drone videos of Russian soldiers killed or seriously wounded in what the soldiers grimly call “meat grinder” battles against Ukrainian defenders. Ukrainian soldiers have spoken often about how their outnumbered troops are forced to face so-called human wave attacks from an enemy whose commanders seem happy to tolerate brutal attrition rates.
As personnel casualties mount, the Kremlin is searching everywhere for fighters to send to the front.
Putin ordered the country’s military to increase its troop numbers by 170,000, which would bring the total number of Russian troops to more than 2.2 million, including 1.32 million soldiers, according to a decree published by the Kremlin in December.
This is equivalent to increasing the size of the Russian army by 15% and marks the second expansion of the army since Putin launched his invasion.
Putin initially ordered an immediate “partial mobilization” of Russian citizens in September 2022, following a series of defeats that sparked recriminations in Moscow. The mobilization meant that citizens who were military reservists could be called up and those with military experience were subject to conscription.
The recruitment drive led to fierce demonstrations – particularly in Russia’s ethnic minority regions, where mobilization efforts were concentrated – and sparked an exodus of military-age men who fled the country to avoid joining the war.
Although the mobilization campaign was suspended in November 2022 after authorities claimed that the target of recruiting 300,000 people had been achieved, Russia has been recruiting fighters beyond its borders to fight in Ukraine.
Russia has recruited some 15,000 Nepalese to fight the war in Ukraine, many of them traumatized, while an unknown number remain missing or feared dead. A Nepalese soldier who spoke to CNN said Afghan, Indian, Congolese and Egyptian recruits were among those being trained at Russia’s military academies for foreign fighters.
Source: CNN Brasil
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