Russia offers 1.6 million rubles to recruit foreign soldiers

Russia has announced a significant increase in financial incentives to recruit foreign citizens and non-nationals into its military to bolster forces in the ongoing war against Ukraine. According to a new decree issued by Igor Kobzev, the Governor of the Irkutsk region, the incentive for recruiting foreign nationals has been raised to approximately 1.6 million rubles per soldier.

This represents a nearly fourfold increase from the previous incentive of 400,000 rubles over the last seven months. Additionally, the incentive for recruiting Russian citizens residing outside of Irkutsk has been doubled to 800,000 rubles. Other regions, including Smolensk and Ryazan, have also implemented substantial increases in recruitment rewards.

As the conflict enters its fourth year, Russia appears to be targeting citizens from economically weaker nations to offset military losses. Meanwhile, the conflict continues to escalate with intensified aerial attacks involving ballistic missiles and drones, prompting retaliatory long-range strikes by Ukraine against Russian oil and industrial infrastructure.