British Intelligence: Russia seeks to recruit 400,000 contract soldiers this year

In 2024, Russia wants to recruit about 400,000 contract soldiers to the army to compensate for the significant losses in the army in the war against Ukraine. This was reported by the Ministry of Defense of the United Kingdom, according to UNN.

Details

It is noted that Russia continues to conscript soldiers every spring and fall. Thus, the next spring conscription this year began on April 1. Russia plans to draft about 150 thousand soldiers aged 18-30.

According to British intelligence, these conscripts will serve for 12 months in all branches of the Russian armed forces, but they are not currently involved in combat operations in Ukraine. Conscripts are deployed to garrisons across Russia.

At the same time, ground units usually form a separate unit from the battalion, staffed by contract soldiers, and some conscripts are likely to serve in units adjacent to the Ukrainian border.

British intelligence emphasizes that Russian troops in Ukraine are manned by contract soldiers and some reservists mobilized at the end of 2022. Conscripts are usually pressured to sign up for contract service and then serve in Ukraine. It is likely that the Russian authorities do not want to risk combat losses among conscripts, which would likely be unpopular. Losses among volunteer soldiers are more tolerable to society.

In 2024, Russia seeks to recruit about 400,000 contract soldiers to support its forces in Ukraine, which have suffered huge losses, and to support previously announced plans to increase the size of its armed forces to 1.32 million this year and 1.5 million thereafter,

Recall

As previously reported by the UK Ministry of Defense, Russia lacks soldiers to form new military districts because its troops are involved in the war in Ukraine.