Russia Deepens Recruitment Push as Manpower Shortage Worsens

Russia is facing a severe personnel crisis in its war against Ukraine, with recruitment down 20% in recent months and the army struggling to fill its ranks more than four years after the invasion. To lure new recruits, the Kremlin is offering unusually large incentives, including a $80,000 bonus, debt forgiveness of up to $140,000, promises of hero status, and a faster path to citizenship for migrants.

According to a CNN report cited in the article, enlistment in the first quarter of the year fell 20% compared with 2025, and there are signs the decline is continuing. The International Institute for Strategic Studies said the incentives may already be losing effectiveness and that Russia has begun losing more soldiers than it can recruit. The Kremlin has also sent tens of thousands of prisoners to the front, reinforced its forces with three separate waves of North Korean troops, and encouraged migrants to join the military.

Western intelligence estimates cited in the article put Russian battlefield deaths at nearly 500,000, while hundreds of thousands more Russians have left the country to avoid mobilization. The manpower crunch is also hurting the Russian economy, which is suffering from a labor shortage and rising inflation.

At the same time, Moscow is tightening control over internet access. Reuters reported that more Russians are using technical workarounds to evade state surveillance as authorities push them toward the government-backed Max messaging app. Since 2025, mobile carriers must preinstall Max on every new device sold in Russia, and public-sector workers, teachers, and students are required to use it. The app is believed to help the authorities monitor users, and many Russians now keep two phones, one they assume is monitored and another for freer use. In March alone, users downloaded the five most popular VPN services 9.2 million times, a jump of hundreds of percent year over year, even as regulators restricted access to hundreds of VPNs.