Russia is finding it increasingly difficult to recruit new soldiers for the war against Ukraine — CNN
The Russian Federation is facing serious difficulties in recruiting new soldiers to its army to continue its full-scale aggression against Ukraine.
Even huge financial payments and promises to write off debts no longer yield the desired results, and the number of people willing to sign contracts is rapidly declining.
According to journalists, the Kremlin is forced to resort to increasingly desperate measures to maintain the current strength of the occupation forces.
Due to the ineffectiveness of current recruitment methods, Vladimir Putin will likely be forced to make extremely unpopular political decisions as early as this year.
To hold the front lines, Moscow has previously sent tens of thousands of former prisoners to the front, as well as three separate waves of North Korean soldiers and foreign mercenaries.
Russian authorities are currently advertising unprecedented financial incentives: one-time payments of up to $80,000 and full forgiveness of existing debts totaling up to $140,000 for signing a contract.
Billboards, social media appeals, and promises of expedited Russian citizenship for foreigners are being actively used for large-scale recruitment.
However, despite intense financial pressure, recruitment rates for the Russian army fell by 20% in the first quarter of 2026 compared to the same period in 2025.
Leading military analysts do not rule out that the Kremlin will announce a second wave of official compulsory mobilization, which will be accompanied by strict restrictions on men of draft age traveling abroad.
The previous mobilization campaign in 2022 proved extremely unpopular among the population and triggered mass emigration of hundreds of thousands of able-bodied citizens.
In addition to the political crisis, the mass exodus and loss of the male population dealt a devastating blow to the domestic labor market.
“The entire Russian economy is suffering from the most acute labor shortage in history,” noted Nigel Gould-Davies, a research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
This was reported by the authoritative international news outlet CNN, citing data from its own sources and analytical reports.
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