How much does Russia pay its mercenaries for war in Ukraine
BusinessCensor inquired about the payments offered by the Russian military machine. We are talking about millions of rubles. Many Russians have not only never seen such money, but cannot even imagine it.
On the eve of the full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, Russia deployed about 200,000 troops to Ukraine's borders. The Kremlin hoped that they would quickly move deep into the country and capture Kyiv. The invaders even brought along their ceremonial uniforms, but they were of no use. The Armed Forces of Ukraine provided them with completely different clothes.
Thanks to the heroic efforts of the Ukrainian Defense Forces and the entire Ukrainian people, the enemy's offensive was stopped, and the occupiers were partially driven from our land.
So, when the "Kyiv in three days" plan failed and the Russian casualty count reached tens of thousands, the Kremlin launched a campaign to recruit new soldiers.
After the defeat of the Russian army near Kharkiv in September 2022, Vladimir Putin announced the so-called "partial mobilization." According to the plans, 300,000 reservists were to be called up for service.
This decision had an immediate impact on the Russian economy. The maximum drop in the Moscow Stock Exchange index then reached 10%, the RTS index fell by 10.29%, and the ruble collapsed. Russians began to flee Russia en masse, primarily to countries that did not require visas. Protests began in the regions, particularly in the Caucasus.
At the same time, the then head of the Wagner PMC, Yevgeny Prigozhin, recruited mercenaries from among prisoners to fight against Ukraine, promising them pardons and money.
In fact, money was the main incentive for Russians to join the occupation forces. When talking to journalists, captured Russian soldiers do not hide their motivation to fight - all of them say they wanted to improve their financial situation and pay off their loans.
By the way, almost half of borrowers with mortgages or consumer loans in Russia currently complain that they have difficulty paying off their debts, according to a Levada Center survey. According to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, as of July 1, Russians' debt on loans and borrowings amounted to almost 42 trillion rubles ($434 billion).
As of October 9, 2024, the estimated losses of enemy personnel, both killed and wounded, amounted to just over 664 thousand people. That is, the Ukrainian Defense Forces have already crushed more than three groups that were concentrated on Ukraine's borders at the beginning of the full-scale invasion.
Recently, Putin issued a decree to increase the number of personnel in the Russian Armed Forces to almost 2.4 million. However, this does not mean that everyone can be thrown into the war against Ukraine. Someone still has to guard sensitive, including nuclear, facilities, the 22,400-kilometer border, the second-longest state border in the world after China, and fight off the internal enemy, as Prigozhin's 2023 rebellion caused a scare in the Kremlin, etc.
Russia covers the lack of manpower in the war of aggression with money. Not only marginalized Russians sign contracts with the Russian Defense Ministry. Natives of Nepal, Egypt, India, Somalia, and the DPRK are fighting against Ukraine in the ranks of the occupation army (although North Koreans may be fanatics and fight because the party said so).
Putin is afraid of announcing a total or even a new wave of partial mobilization, because, firstly, it could lead to a social explosion, and, secondly, the Kremlin leader will have to change his entire narrative about the war in Ukraine, Michael Clark said, professor of defense studies at King's College London, former head of the Royal United Services Institute for Defense Studies.
"I think Russia will try to avoid mobilization this year [2024] and next year. The Russians will simply buy more forces abroad and from other parts of the Russian Federation," he says.
However, the one-time payments received by the signatories of the contract with the Russian Defense Ministry are uneven and depend on the region where the mercenary was recruited. The only constant in the proposed amount is the payment from the federal budget. Currently, it amounts to 400 thousand rubles, although in June 2024, according to system analyst Yevhen Istrebin, it was 195 thousand rubles.
"Since June, they've been running some kind of crazy mercenary search printer. Regions are racing to increase payments to fulfill the meat recruitment plan, otherwise governors face serious problems," the expert explains.
BusinessCensor inquired about the payments offered by the army war machine of the Russian Federation. We are talking about millions of rubles. Many Russians have not only never seen such money, but cannot even imagine it.
Be in time for the new year
Russian regions, as if competing with each other for mercenaries, are beginning to increase one-time payments. For example, on October 4, it became known that in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, a contractor with the Russian Defense Ministry would be paid 2.75 million rubles relatively immediately.
However, on October 7, Belgorod region increased the payment to Russian mercenaries to 3 million rubles (more than $31 thousand at the current exchange rate). The amount became a record for Russia, it was increased by 2.2 million rubles at once.
The mercenaries will receive funds from four centers: 400 thousand rubles from the federal budget, as mentioned above, and the rest from municipal and regional budgets, as well as from extra-budgetary sources.
Mercenaries from any region, regardless of residence, can apply for the payment, but the contract itself must be concluded through the system of military commissariats in the Belgorod region (this also applies to foreigners).
After that, the money will be transferred to the current account within two months, as soon as the Ministry of Social Protection of the Russian Federation receives the necessary data from the military unit and draws up the documents.
Let's leave aside the question of whether they will have time to receive anything at all. After all, it is worth recalling the story of Muhammad Adil, a Russian mercenary from Somalia who, tempted by Russian rubles in late 2023, was captured by the Ukrainian Defense Forces in mid-January 2024. The African soldier of fortune did not receive a single kopeck because he did not have time to fight for a month.
Nevertheless, the governor of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, explained that this is not an open-ended 3 million offer, but rather a promotion that will run from October 7 to December 31, 2024. Thus, a mercenary who signs a contract in the Belgorod region can earn from 5.52 million rubles, or about $57 thousand, for a year at the front.
To understand: the average monthly salary in the Belgorod region, according to official data, is 91.8 thousand rubles (~$950); the average value in Russia is 88 thousand rubles (~$910). That is, an average Russian, receiving an average salary, has to work and not spend money at all for five years to accumulate the amount of money that is given immediately for signing a contract with the Russian Defense Ministry in the Belgorod region.
In general, the accounting is understandable. As a region of Russia bordering Ukraine, Belgorod Oblast has repeatedly experienced the power of the Ukrainian army. And after the Kursk offensive, which began in August 2024, Belgorod Oblast, according to rumors mostly spread by the Russians themselves, was to be the next to be targeted.
So, if the Russian federal government cannot secure its own border, it decided to go all-in by offering a contract for 3 million rubles. Governor Gladkov probably even has the leverage to keep such contract workers within the territories under his control.
For reference, it takes about 10 hours to get from Moscow to Belgorod by train, if you're lucky with tickets, and almost 8 hours by car. And payments between the capital and the border region differ by almost a million rubles ($10.4 thousand).
How much are Russian mercenaries paid
On average, a mercenary who signs a contract with the Russian Defense Ministry receives 1,689,833 rubles ($17,500) immediately. For more details by region, see the infographic:
The Russian government envisages in the draft federal budget for 2025-2027 that 90 billion rubles, or 30 billion rubles annually, will be allocated for one-time payments for signing a contract with the Russian Defense Ministry.
If the federal payment does not change and remains at the level of 400 thousand rubles, the budgeted 90 billion rubles will be enough to conclude 225 thousand new contracts in three years. That is, 75 thousand per year.
In the first half of 2024, more than 32 billion rubles were spent on one-time payments to new contractors, which is more than the budgeted amount for the next year. It is also worth noting that at that time, the federal payment for signing a contract with the Russian Defense Ministry was 195 thousand rubles. Putin decided to increase the federal payment on July 31 by signing a decree.
According to the "Vazhlyvi Istorii" ("Important Stories") publication, 26.7 thousand people received a one-time payment for signing a contract in the first half of 2023. Over the same period in 2024, the figure rose to 166 thousand people. The publication emphasizes that the sharp increase in the number of contract servicemen is due to the increase in payments.
According to official data from the Russian Ministry of Defense, at the end of 2023, there were more than 640,000 contract soldiers in the Russian army. Every day, they allegedly recruited 1,500 new volunteers.
By the way, the average daily losses of Russian troops in Ukraine in killed and wounded in September reached a record level for the entire duration of the war, according to British intelligence.
Analysts, based on data from the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, note that the average daily loss rate in September was 1271 people per day, while the previous record was set in May - 1262 people per day.
