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Written by Ben Spencer
Edited by Michael Hilliard
As the war in Ukraine continues to exact a devastating toll on both sides, the Russian Ministry of Defence has launched significant efforts to address the heavy personnel losses sustained on the front lines. The effectiveness of these measures, however, remains a topic of intense debate, both within Russia and among external observers, particularly regarding the fluctuating number of military contracts signed in 2024 compared to 2023.
According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, approximately 430,000 individuals signed contracts with the Russian Armed Forces in 2024, a notable increase from the 300,000 reported in 2023. This figure aligns closely with claims by Defence Minister Andrey Beloussov, who cited 427,000, while Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council, provided a higher estimate of 450,000. However, that number should be taken with some doubt as Medvedev also pegged the 2023 figure at 540,000, significantly higher than Putin’s estimate. Yet, these claims of recruitment success, and how Russia supposedly reached those figures, raise some critical questions. As if Putin’s assertions of rising enlistment figures are accurate, how has Moscow achieved this amid the grim realities of the conflict? Particularly as reports from The Moscow Times highlight that the average lifespan of a Russian soldier in Ukraine has now dropped to just 4.5 months?
So how is Russia recruiting this next intake of soldiers?
Money, Money, Money...
As expected, the most straightforward enticement Moscow can offer to incentivise enlistment is financial payments, particularly in a period of rising inflation across many parts of Russia. Interestingly, this renewed emphasis on monetary rewards in recruitment campaigns in 2024 represents a notable shift in strategy for the Kremlin, as when conducting a comparison of the Moscow recruitment website from April 2023, to its current iteration reveals significant changes in how potential recruits are targeted.
For example, while the monthly salary of a Russian soldier fighting in Ukraine has increased by 30%, the real standout is the dramatic rise in one-time signing bonuses. Over just 10 months, the signing bonus has skyrocketed from 195,000 rubles (approximately 1,900 USD) to an astonishing 2.3 million rubles (approximately 22,000 USD) —a staggering increase of over 1,000%. The evolution of the recruitment site’s messaging also emphasises this change as one of the main selling points.
Marketing the Motherland...
Using the Wayback Machine, we can observe that as of April 8, 2023, the recruitment homepage was not emphasizing cash bonuses as heavily as it does today. Instead, the site leaned on appeals to patriotism, prominently showcasing statements such as “Our fatherland is in danger,” “It’s time to fulfill our duty,” and “The military is not just work; here, a country’s history is rewritten.” These slogans reflecting a time when recruitment efforts sought to inspire a sense of national duty and historical significance, rather than relying primarily on financial incentives. By contrast, the current version of the site, does away with these appeals, and instead just places financial incentives front and center, suggesting a clear pivot toward addressing economic concerns as the primary driver of enlistment. This shift from patriotic appeals to financial incentives in Russian military recruitment is evident not just online but also in public spaces as well, exemplified by three recruitment posters that reflect the changing strategy over time.
The first image, taken in April 2022, just a month after the invasion began, highlights the early, more tentative approach. For additional context, the ad was originally displayed in a train carriage in Novosibirsk, with the ad being relatively small and unassuming. The messaging of the ad also chooses to avoid any mention of salary, and instead emphasises the idea of a "short-term contract," a stark contrast to current reports suggesting that even one-year contracts are now often automatically extended.
Another notable feature of the 2022 poster is the prominent "+18" sign and the use of bold red lettering to convey a sense of urgency and danger. This suggests an effort to target younger demographics, leveraging the appeal of risk and adventure and the association of a clublike “+18” sign, to try and draw in younger recruits often used to seeing this kind of messaging on a downtown club night poster. With the ad’s relatively restrained size and format also somewhat indicating that this was a much more cautious, exploratory measure, testing public receptivity during the early stages of the conflict.
Fast forward to August 2024, and the evolution in approach is stark. Recent posters employ softer, more inviting blue and green tones, shifting the focus of the ad to themes of adventure and opportunity rather than danger. Not only does the bolder and larger format reflect a more confident recruitment strategy from the Kremlin, but also hints that the Russian Ministry of Defence is now aiming at a much older and broader audience for its recruitment.
Reviving the Icons
By this stage of the war, the orange-and-black St. George ribbon has also become increasingly central to Russian recruitment and propaganda efforts. Originally, the ribbon was a national emblem commemorating victory over fascism in World War II, traditionally worn on Victory Day by military veterans. However, as the number of remaining WW2 veterans continues to shrink, it has now increasingly morphed into a symbol of nostalgia, particularly for younger Russians who associate it with their fathers and grandfathers participating in annual celebrations. Domestically, the Kremlin has sought to revive the ribbon's prominence, repurposing the symbol as a propaganda tool by portraying Ukrainians as this generation's "Nazis" and "fascists". This narrative not only aligns with Putin’s stated goals of "denazification" , but also attempts to use ribbon became a visual representation of this attempted ideological framing, reinforcing the notion that Russia’s campaign is simply a continuation of the fight against fascism, rather than a conquest to extend territory.
This reliance on World War II-era slogans and imagery was particularly prominent during the buildup and early stages of the 2022 campaign. Billboards displayed slogans such as “We don’t abandon our own,” drawing a connection between the Soviet Union’s alliances during the Second World War and Russia’s claimed duty to protect the people of Luhansk and Donetsk. Early advertising efforts appeared carefully crafted to appeal to patriotic sentiments, targeting both recruits and the wider public. These messages were designed to convince the population that Russia was waging a just and noble war. However, by 2024, these ideological appeals seem to have lost resonance, and interviews with recruits now exhibit a stark disconnect between the propaganda narratives posed by the Kremlin in 2022, and the motivations of those enlisting in 2024.
As Mikhail Sergeevich, a former welder speaking to Verstka reporters at a registration office in Butyrsky in November 2024, bluntly remarked: “What do you mean by a ‘just war’? How can you tell if war is just?”. Such statements underscore the growing apathy and disillusionment among many of Russia’s newer recruits, particularly concerning the Kremlin’s ideological justifications and the war’s perceived connection to the more revered campaigns of the past. While some recruits may still repeat rhetoric about "defending the motherland," patriotism has largely ceased to be the primary motivator for enlistment. As discussed above, financial necessity has become the dominant driver, with these newer soldiers viewing enlistment not as a patriotic duty but as a means to provide for themselves and their families amidst increasingly dire economic conditions.
By August 2024, any semblance of patriotism or valour in recruitment materials has been entirely abandoned, with the third poster posted here also displaying a definitive shift toward the Kremlins much more transactional tone, with this ad now prioritising financial incentives by prominently advertising the salaries recruits can earn, as well as eliminates references to specific roles in the armed forces, such as driver, sniper, or medic, common in earlier materials. Instead, the message is clear: recruits will be paid well but will have no say in their assignments, reflecting the military’s growing need to deploy personnel wherever they are most urgently required, regardless of individual preferences. The transformation of recruitment strategies, from patriotic appeals to straightforward financial transactions, reflects the Kremlin’s shift from ideological persuasion to pragmatic necessity, as the government appears to have largely given up on convincing people to fight in Ukraine for patriotic reasons and instead resorts to offering simple pay-for-service arrangements to bolster its ranks.
Russian recruitment messaging has undergone a dramatic transformation since the onset of the "Special Military Operation." What began as efforts to justify the war through patriotic appeals has now shifted to a focus on financial incentives, with significant increases in monthly salaries and extraordinary jumps in one-time signing bonuses between 2022 and 2023. These changes reflect the Russian military’s urgent need to replace mounting losses in a conflict that has evolved into a war of attrition. With reports from Meduza estimating Russian losses at 200–250 soldiers per day during the summer of 2024, the Kremlin’s recruitment strategy has adapted to meet the demands of modern warfare and the battlefield realities in Ukraine.
Going forward, the Kremlin faces a precarious balancing act: attempting to expand its recruitment efforts by broadening the target demographic of its advertisements, without alienating or raising concerns among the wider Russian population. The previous veneer of patriotic propaganda has increasingly been replaced by stark pragmatism as the war encroaches on Russian territory. Ukrainian drone strikes on Moscow, cross-border skirmishes in Belgorod and Bryansk, and the authorisation of long-range attacks within Russia using Western-supplied Storm Shadow and ATACMS missiles have made the conflict’s realities impossible to ignore. In response, the Kremlin has shifted its recruitment messaging, stripping away appeals to patriotism and instead presenting enlistment as a direct life-for-money transaction.
The fact that many Russians continue to enlist in even greater numbers than the previous year, despite these grim realities, underscores the desperation of the economically vulnerable and the limited value they place on their own lives. In a society where financial security is disproportionately valued, enlistment has become less of a choice and more a grim inevitability, a last resort for survival in an increasingly challenging economic landscape.
This article is part one, of our three part series unpacking the shifting dynamics in Russia’s recruitment strategy.
Ben Spencer is a research analyst for the Red Line, specialising in the events of the ongoing war in Ukraine and the modern Russian military.
