For Russian males, battle now advertises itself like every other job.
Affords for front-line contracts seem on the messaging app Telegram alongside group chats and information alerts, promising signing bonuses of as much as $540,000 — life-changing cash in a rustic the place common month-to-month wages stay under $1,000. The incentives transcend money, with pledges of debt aid and free little one look after troopers’ households and assured college locations for his or her youngsters. Prison data, sickness and even HIV are now not automated disqualifiers. For a lot of males with little to lose, the entrance has develop into an employer of final resort.
Behind the flood of gives is a coordinated recruitment system run by means of Russia’s greater than 80 regional governments. Pressured by the Kremlin to ship manpower, the areas have develop into de facto hiring hubs, competing with each other for contract troopers. What started as a wartime repair has hardened right into a quasi-commercial headhunting trade powered by federal bonuses and native budgets. Regional authorities contract HR companies, which in flip deploy freelance recruiters to promote on-line, display screen candidates and shepherd males by means of enlistment paperwork.
Any Russian citizen can now work as a wartime recruiter, with many working as freelance headhunters who earn commissions for delivering our bodies to the entrance. Axel Springer International Reporters Community, which incorporates POLITICO, reviewed recruitment channels throughout Russia and interviewed a number of recruits and recruiters for this report.
This labor protection market is being intently studied in Western capitals, the place the continued development of Russia’s military — regardless of having round 1 million troopers killed or severely wounded since 2022 — has shocked intelligence companies and vexed diplomats, who see the rise as essential to understanding the nation’s posture in peace negotiations and the potential for future enlargement into neighboring territory.
“Assuming that Putin is ready to proceed to fund the big enlistment bonuses (and loss of life funds, too) and to search out the manpower at present enticed to serve,” former CIA Director David Petraeus instructed POLITICO, Russia “can maintain the form of pricey, grinding marketing campaign that has characterised the combating in Ukraine for the reason that final main achievements on both facet within the second yr of the battle.”
Russia’s capability to maintain manpower ranges amid huge battlefield losses helps clarify why, 4 years into the invasion, President Vladimir Putin seems extra satisfied than ever that he can power Ukraine to just accept his phrases — whether or not by means of diplomacy or a grinding battle of attrition. Chatting with Russian journalists on Nov. 27, Putin made clear the battle would finish provided that Ukrainian forces withdrew from the territories Russia claims — in any other case, he warned, Moscow would impose its phrases “by armed power.”
A market for troopers
When Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022, Olga and her husband Alexander had been working a small hiring operation in Moscow — putting development employees, safety guards and couriers in civilian jobs. About 18 months in the past, they pivoted to one thing much more profitable by way of Russia’s foremost labeled advertisements platform: recruiting riflemen, drone operators and different troopers for the battle.
“Our daughter noticed a job advert on Avito in search of recruiters, and that’s how it began,” Olga instructed POLITICO in a collection of voice messages over WhatsApp. Her profile image shows the Russian coat of arms. (Olga and Alexander’s surname has been withheld to guard their anonymity underneath worry of governmental reprisal.)
As what it as soon as anticipated to be a blitz has develop into a battle of exhaustion, the Kremlin has reengineered its mobilization accordingly. In September 2022, Putin introduced what he referred to as a “partial mobilization” of 300,000 reservists, triggering a surge of public anger and emigration as a whole bunch of hundreds fled the nation to keep away from being despatched to combat. On the similar time, the state opened its jail gates to the battlefield, luring inmates into uniform with guarantees of clemency and pay.
The method labored, establishing a brand new blueprint: much less coercion, more money. To herald volunteers who wouldn’t qualify for the draft due to age, well being or lack of prior army service, the Kremlin focused society’s most weak — from prisoners to migrant employees and indebted males — by elevating wages, providing lavish signing bonuses and promoting army service as a path to dignity and survival. In September 2024, Putin formalized the technique by ordering that the armed forces develop to 1.5 million active-duty troops. The gross sales pitch modified, too: subpoenas and summonses had been changed by cash, advantages and appeals to manhood.
“These measures goal a particular demographic: socially weak males,” mentioned political scientist Ekaterina Schulmann, who research Russian authorities decision-making as a lecturer on the Osteuropa Institute in Berlin. “Males with money owed, legal data, little monetary literacy — or these trapped by predatory microcredit. Individuals on the margins, with no prospects.”
For a number of months, Alexander and Olga labored for a corporation they discovered by means of Avito earlier than going unbiased and rising their enterprise. “Now recruiters work for us — 10 individuals,” Olga mentioned.
The couple do most of their headhunting on the messaging app Telegram, throughout an unlimited ecosystem of channels now dedicated to wartime hiring. In a single group with greater than 96,000 subscribers and a profile image labeled “WORKING,” as many as 40 recruitment advertisements are posted per day, promoting openings for soldiers and drone pilots alongside detailed bonus gives from rival areas.
Every submit is actually a wage bid. Whereas wages stay usually fixed, the areas usually compete for employees by bidding up the worth of labor by means of incentives like signing bonuses. Whereas the Kremlin final yr launched a minimal bonus benchmark of 400,000 rubles ($5,170) by way of presidential decree, the quantities on provide now fluctuate wildly. Recruiters steer candidates to whichever territory is at present paying greatest.
“We assist with paperwork and put them in contact with regional officers,” Olga defined. “After which we pray — that they arrive again alive and properly.”
The couple declined to say how a lot they earn per recruit. However, as with bonuses provided to volunteers, recruiter pay seems to fluctuate extensively by area. One other recruiter who spoke to POLITICO confirmed figures beforehand revealed by the unbiased Russian outlet Verstka, which put commissions at between $1,280 and $3,800 per signed contract.
Russian areas are tapping reserve funds to take care of recruitment ranges. In line with a evaluate by unbiased outlet iStories, simply 11 areas had budgeted not less than $25.5 million on recruiter funds — quantities similar to regional spending on well being care and social companies.
An evaluation by economist Janis Kluge of the German Institute for Worldwide and Safety Affairs, primarily based on knowledge from 37 areas, exhibits that common signing bonuses have now climbed to roughly $25,850, together with federal funds. In early 2025, elevated incentives triggered a surge of volunteers. In locations like Samara, bonuses rose to greater than $50,000 in summer time, sufficient to purchase a two-bedroom residence. (In some areas, bonuses have just lately fallen, which probably signifies they efficiently recruited an above-average variety of volunteers and had already met their quotas.)
For a lot of households, army service has develop into one of many few routes to upward mobility. In lots of areas, weak native labor markets go away few alternate options. The extra precarious the financial outlook, the stronger the recruitment pipeline.
“This type of cash can fully remodel a Russian household’s life,” mentioned Kluge. “This system works surprisingly properly, however it has develop into far dearer for the Kremlin.”
How the battle was staffed
This recruiting machine helps to carry roughly 30,000 volunteers into the Russian armed companies every month, sufficient to offset its heavy casualty charge and maintain long-term operations. The Washington-based Middle for Strategic and Worldwide Research estimated this summer time that Russia had misplaced about 1 million killed and wounded — in keeping with estimates from British and Ukrainian officers.
Moscow isn’t relying solely on volunteers to fill its ranks. A regulation signed a number of weeks in the past shifts Russia’s conscription system — which drafts medically match males aged 18 to 30 not but serving within the reserve — from biannual cycles to year-round processing. Consultants say the change successfully creates a everlasting recruitment infrastructure, enabling the Protection Ministry to funnel extra individuals into the armed forces.
“They’re shifting ahead, however they don’t care in regards to the variety of individuals they lose,” mentioned Andriy Yermak, who as head of the Ukrainian Presidential Workplace served because the nation’s lead peace negotiator earlier than resigning on Nov. 28 amid a corruption investigation. “It’s vital to grasp that we’re a democratic nation, and we’re combating towards an autocratic one. In Russia, an individual’s life prices nothing.”
Ukrainian items, in contrast, are stretched skinny; in lots of locations, they will barely maintain the road. Ukrainian officers instructed POLITICO that in elements of the jap entrance, there are as many as seven Russian troopers for each one in all theirs. This dynamic has been exacerbated by tens of hundreds of Ukrainian troopers who, over the previous yr, have left their posts with out authorization or deserted army service altogether.
Russia’s personnel benefit is one cause its military now seizes Ukrainian land each month roughly equal in measurement to the town of Atlanta. As Kyiv relinquishes territory, it has labored to develop international recruitment, drawing volunteers from throughout the Americas and Europe.
German safety officers say Putin is well-positioned to hit a declared goal of a 1.5 million–troop military subsequent yr. That fast industrial and army buildup has rattled European policymakers, who more and more see it as preparation for army motion past Ukraine.
“Russia is continuous to construct up its military and is mobilizing on a scale that implies a bigger army confrontation with extra European states,” mentioned German Bundestag member Roderich Kiesewetter, a safety skilled from Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s celebration.
A fighter by necessity
Anton didn’t be a part of the army as a result of he believed within the battle. He slipped into the military after a monetary collapse. By the point the 44-year-old father of three from the Moscow area walked right into a army recruitment workplace final yr, he felt he had run out of choices. He was unemployed, drowning in debt and dealing with a doable jail sentence over a fraud case that made discovering authorized work almost inconceivable. (Anton’s identify was modified to guard his anonymity underneath worry of governmental reprisal.)
Opening Telegram, he additionally saved seeing persistent advertisements promising lavish bonuses. “My spouse was on maternity go away, my mom is retired — the household trusted me,” Anton instructed POLITICO in voice messages despatched over Telegram. “Throughout one argument, my spouse mentioned: ‘It could be higher should you went to battle.’ A month and a half later, I signed the contract. It felt like the one manner out.” In Anton’s case, no recruiter was concerned — he went to the recruitment heart on his personal.
The contract promised Anton about $2,650 a month, plus a signing bonus from the Moscow area of roughly $2,460, greater than 10 occasions what he had earned underneath the desk as a warehouse employee and courier. He was dispatched to the Pokrovsk sector in Ukraine’s Donetsk area, at a take away from direct fight — although, as he places it, underneath “occasional shelling” — conserving his unit’s drones operational.
There, mentioned Anton, he met many males who, like him, had been unable to make ends meet in civilian life. “Some are paying alimony, some had been despatched by collectors to work off their money owed,” Anton mentioned. “There’s no patriotic discuss right here — no ‘for victory’ or ‘for Putin.’ No person speaks like that. Everyone seems to be drained. Everybody simply needs to go residence.”
In July 2025, Anton obtained a state ornament for his service, which can assist clear his legal document. “That was another excuse I signed,” he mentioned. “It was the one method to keep away from prosecution — both die or earn a medal.”
Eluding jail time stays a robust motivator for a lot of. A relative of a lacking soldier from the Moscow area described how 28-year-old Ivan, a prepare dinner, was arrested for drug trafficking in 2025. “He signed the army service declaration in custody and requested the court docket to switch his sentence with service,” the relative mentioned. Inside every week, he was deployed to the entrance. Ivan disappeared in April after lower than a month in fight. His spouse and 1-year-old son have heard nothing since. (Ivan’s identify was modified on the household’s request, for worry of retribution.)
Whereas tens of hundreds have enlisted from Russia’s wealthiest city facilities, in line with official databases and analysts, most recruits come from Russia’s economically depressed areas, the place life has lengthy been outlined by poverty, crime and alcoholism.
“For a lot of males, that is the final alternative to construct a life that feels significant,” mentioned Alexander Baunov of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Middle. “As a substitute of dying as failures of their households’ eyes, they die as heroes on the entrance.”
For the boys volunteering — typically handled as expendable by their commanders — the battle has develop into a high-risk lottery for a greater life. Survival brings transformative earnings. Even extreme accidents include mounted payouts: roughly $12,000 for a damaged finger and $36,000 for a shattered foot.
Throughout transient journeys nearer to the entrance to ship gear, Anton mentioned he was repeatedly focused by Ukrainian drones. On one event, one exploded simply meters from him. Even that slender escape wasn’t sufficient to make him rethink.
“My monetary state of affairs improved considerably. It might sound unhappy, however for me personally, signing the contract made my life higher,” Anton mentioned. “The toughest half is being removed from my youngsters. However even realizing that, I might do it yet again.”