The mobilization of the Russian troops to enlist contract soldiers in the war in Ukraine seems to be backfiring, and new sources in Moscow have cited that the number of recruits decreased significantly in the year 2025. The office of the mayor of the city provided the outlet with data that stated that only 24,469 individuals were sent to the front last year, which is a decrease by 25% of 2024. The decline was the most significant in December, with only 879 contracts being signed, compared to almost 2,000 in December 2024. This was the lowest monthly figure since the volunteer enlistment campaign had started, the source said. Our recruiting process has been more or less ineffective. The opposite took place instead of the anticipated 30-40% increment.
Anyone can tell that there is a dearth of recruits and zero influx whatsoever, according to one source in the mayor office. Another government official remarked that war weariness is increasing and the majority who were ready to engage in the war have already left. There is negative growth that is strong. It has always been a slow month in December, but it is truly terrible now, the source said. It is not because there are no idealists now, it is that there are no healthy men. Medical personnel is forced to compromise and ignore the fact that there are obviously inadequate and unfit to serve people. It lacks education, experience, and motivation. Nothing.” There is also a change in the profile of recruits. It was reported that the percentage of those above 45 rose in 2024, and in 2025 those above 55 started to be more frequent. Meanwhile, the amount of candidates who were rejected dropped drastically.
Verstka indicated that there was an average of 61 rejected applicants every month in 2024, relative to only 23 in 2025. The leadership gave directive to narrow down on the selection criteria, only to eliminate applicants in extreme situations, a source in the office of the mayor said. The rejections have also become mostly restricted to the ones who are under drug or psychiatric treatment, those who are HIV positive, and those who have been accused of grave offenses like stealing firearms, trying to overthrow the government, or being extremists. Recruitment numbers are projected to go down further with officials saying that one time signing bonuses are no longer effective as a motivator. The deteriorating financial state of Russia can also restrict the capacity of regions to continue making such payments.
There is also an indication of service resistance. Approximately 100 of the troops who were arrested due to unauthorized absence were allegedly attempting to break out of the office of a military commandant in Krasnodar. Some of them broke a fence and escaped, but four were re-captured and three are still out. Alone, Ukraine has claimed that Russia is covertly recruiting civilians in its occupied territories. One Ukrainian military spokesperson recently claimed that one of its air forces units received approximately 50 new recruits, and the vast majority of them were already people of the occupied Luhansk region.