Russia offers cash bonuses, frees prisoners and lures foreigners to replenish its troops in Ukraine

This is a big payday for the average wage earner in Russia. For criminals looking to escape the harsh conditions and abuse in prison, this is a chance at freedom. For immigrants hoping for a better life It is a simplified route to citizenship.

All they have to do is sign a contract to fight in Ukraine.

As Russia tries to renew its forces almost four years of war – and to avoid an unpopular mobilization across the country – is doing everything to find new troops to send to the battlefield.

Some come from abroad to fight in what has become a bloody war of attrition. North Korea sent thousands of troops to aid Russia after signing a mutual defense agreement with Moscow in 2024. Defend the Kursk region From the Ukrainian attack.

men from South Asian countries, including India, Nepal, and BangladeshThey complain that they were tricked into signing up for the challenge by recruiters promising jobs. Officials in Kenya, South Africa and Iraq say the same situation is happening to citizens in their countries.

Russian numbers in Ukraine

President Vladimir Putin He told the annual press conference Last month, 700,000 Russian troops have been fighting in Ukraine. It gave the same figure in 2024, and a slightly lower figure (617,000) in December 2023. It is unclear whether these figures are accurate.

While Moscow has released limited official figures, the number of military casualties remains secret. The UK Ministry of Defense said more than 1 million Russian soldiers may have been killed or wounded last summer.

Independent Russian news site Mediazona, together with the BBC and a team of volunteers, searched news, social media and government websites and collected the names of more than 160,000 soldiers killed. More than 550 of them were foreigners from more than two dozen countries.

How does Russia recruit new soldiers?

Unlike Ukraine, where martial law and nationwide mobilization have been in effect since February 2022, when Russia’s all-out invasion began, Putin has resisted a broad call.

When a limited mobilization of 300,000 people was attempted that same year, tens of thousands of people fled abroad. Efforts were halted a few weeks later when the goal was achieved, but Putin’s decree left the door open for another call. It also ensured that all military contracts were open-ended and prohibited soldiers from leaving the service or being discharged unless they reached certain age limits or became incapacitated due to injury.

Since then, Moscow has relied heavily on what it describes as voluntary military service.

The flow of volunteer soldiers signing military contracts remained strong, exceeding 400,000 last year, Putin said in December. It was not possible to independently verify the claim. Similar figures were announced in 2024 and 2023.

Activists say these contracts often stipulate a fixed term of service, such as one year, leading some potential recruits to believe the commitment is temporary. But they say the contracts are automatically extended indefinitely.

Incentives

The government offers high salaries and comprehensive benefits to conscripts. Regional authorities offer a variety of registration bonuses, sometimes running into tens of thousands of dollars.

For example, in the Khanty-Mansi region of central Russia, a conscript will receive about $50,000 with various bonuses, according to the local government. That’s more than double the median annual income in the region, where monthly salaries are reported to be just over $1,600 in the first 10 months of 2025.

There are also tax breaks, debt relief and other benefits.

Despite the Kremlin’s claims that it relies on voluntary military service, media reports and human rights groups say conscripts ages 18 to 30 who have completed their mandatory military service and are exempt from being sent to Ukraine are often forced by their superiors to sign contracts that send them to war.

Recruitment also includes prisoners and those in pre-trial detention centres; this was a practice initiated by the United States early in the war. the late mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin and accepted by the Ministry of Defense. The law now allows the assignment of both convicts and suspects in criminal cases.

targeting foreigners

Foreigners also recruit for targets both within Russia and abroad.

Laws were passed offering expedited Russian citizenship to conscripts. Russian media and activists also reported that raids on areas where immigrants usually live or work led to pressure being placed on them to perform military service, with new citizens being sent to registration offices to determine their suitability for compulsory service.

In November, Putin ruled that military service was mandatory for some foreigners seeking permanent residence.

Some are reportedly lured to Russia by smuggling gangs promising jobs, who then trick them into signing military contracts. Cuban authorities identified one such gang operating in Russia in 2023 and tried to eliminate it.

Nepalese Foreign Minister Narayan Prakash Saud told The Associated Press in 2024 that his country wants Russia to return Hundreds of Nepali citizens Those recruited to fight in Ukraine and repatriate the remains of those killed in the war. Nepal has banned citizens from traveling to Russia or Ukraine for work, citing recruitment efforts.

Also in 2024, India’s federal investigation agency said it had busted a network that lured at least 35 of its citizens to Russia under the pretext of employment. The men were trained for combat and sent to Ukraine against their will, some of whom were “severely injured”, the agency said.

When Putin hosted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for talks in 2024, New Delhi said that its citizens who were “misled” about joining the Russian army would be demobilized.

Iraqi officials say about 5,000 of their citizens have joined the Russian army and an unspecified number are fighting alongside Ukrainian forces. Authorities in Baghdad have cracked down on such recruitment networks, and one man was convicted of human trafficking and sentenced to life in prison last year.

An unknown number of Iraqis were killed or went missing while fighting in Ukraine. Some families reported that their relatives were brought to Russia under false pretenses and forced to enlist in the military; in other cases Iraqis joined voluntarily for wages and Russian citizenship.

Anton Gorbatsevich, of the activist group Idite Lesom, or “Get Lost,” which helps men escape the military, said foreigners drawn into war are particularly vulnerable because they cannot speak Russian, have no military experience and are considered “frankly dispensable” by military commanders.

The burden of a slowing economy

This month, Ukraine’s agency for the treatment of prisoners of war said more than 18,000 foreign nationals had fought or were fighting on the Russian side. Approximately 3,400 people have been killed and hundreds of citizens of 40 countries are being held in Ukraine as prisoners of war.

If true, this represents a tiny fraction of the 700,000 troops Putin says are fighting on Russia’s behalf in Ukraine.

Artyom Klyga, head of the Conscientious Objectors Movement’s legal department, said Russia’s recruitment efforts appear to be stable, saying using foreigners is the only way to meet constant demand. It was stated that most of those seeking help from the group, which helps men avoid military service, are Russian citizens.

Kateryna Stepanenko, a Russia researcher at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, said the Kremlin has become more “creative” in attracting soldiers, including foreigners, in the past two years.

But he added that recruiting efforts have become “extremely expensive” for Russia, which is facing a slowing economy.

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Associated Press writers Gerald Imray in Cape Town, South Africa, and Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad contributed.