‘It felt like she was trying to sell me a contract’ Amid talks of peace negotiations, Russia is ramping up military recruitment
Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed he’s ready for peace talks with Ukraine — though not on “the basis of Kyiv’s demands.” But the numbers at home tell a different story. Recruitment efforts in Russian regions are surging, with local administrations boosting sign-on bonuses and pushing contracts on anyone who walks into an enlistment office, according to a new report from Sibir.Realii, the Siberian branch of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Russian service. At the same time, sources told the outlet that the surge may be driven in part by the peace talks themselves, as some people hope to collect military payouts before the government has time to send them to the front. Meduza shares an abridged English-language version of their findings.
Despite official Russian rhetoric about an openness to peace talks, activity at military enlistment offices tells a different story: recruitment appears to be surging in parts of the country. In March 2025, local military commissariats in several cities reported a record number of signed contracts. Sources told Sibir.Realii that the wave was due, in part, to a backlog of willing volunteers who had been waiting for months — watching as regional governments competed to raise one-time enlistment bonuses.
At the same time, many regions also began receiving an unusually high number of “cargo 200” shipments — Russian military code for the bodies of fallen soldiers. “We’ve never had 13 deaths in under a month — the most before was eight,” said a draft office employee in a small Siberian town home to about 30,000 people.
To get a clearer picture of how recruitment is playing out amid talks of peace, residents in four Siberian regions visited their local enlistment offices at Sibir.Realii’s request. In all four — Irkutsk, Novosibirsk, Sverdlovsk, and the Republic of Buryatia — officials said there were no plans to scale back recruitment. In two regions, they reported being on track to exceed their March targets.
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“I walked into the draft office, and they immediately ushered me into a room — no waiting, no delays,” said Sergey (name changed), who lives in a town in the Irkutsk region. “When I asked about the salary, they didn’t mention the recent raise, but they handed me two brochures right away, with a big red number on the cover — 1.4 million rubles [$16,700], supposedly what they’re paying you to go die. Or kill. Depends how it turns out, I guess.”
Sergey told the officials a made-up story about a close relative with a serious medical condition who wanted to join up. “I said he had severe asthma […], basically needs a hospital nearby at all times. And what did they say? ‘Well, that’s not our decision. We’ll just send him to the medical commission. But between us — nobody’s ever been turned away!’” he recalled. “So I asked, what if it’s a heart condition? What about hepatitis B? Even though I know that’s supposed to disqualify you. And still they just said: ‘They’ll probably take him. These days, they’re taking everyone.’”
‘Just a formality’
In Iskitim, a town outside Novosibirsk, a woman who visited her local draft office also said that “they’re taking everyone.”
“They’re offering 1.2 million rubles [$14,300] up front now — that includes both federal and regional payments. But they really emphasize the monthly salary. They say it starts at 210,000 rubles [$2,500] a month, and then they keep adding numbers, trying to make it sound as good as it did in late 2024. They say things like: ‘You’ll earn 3.7 million rubles [$44,000] your first year!’ Never mind that you could die in your first week.”
The woman, Galina (name changed), had said she was inquiring on behalf of her nephew, who, she was told, “would definitely pass the medical commission,” even if he’d previously been rejected from military service due to health issues. She said the recruiter pushed her to bring him to the enlistment office — not just pass along the brochures. “I told her I’d think about it,” she said. “I couldn’t even bring myself to take the papers.”
Galina said there were two other men at the office that day. “One came for a missing person certificate, the other needed a death certificate for his son. His son was definitely dead, but without the proper documents, they couldn’t issue the compensation.”
They later spoke outside while smoking on the front steps. “I was just stunned by what he said,” Galina recalled.
He told me, ‘Of course we’re sad about our boy — he didn’t leave us any grandkids. He was only 24. But now we can fix up the house and buy a new car.’ That’s how much a life is worth — even to his own family. I don’t know, maybe he was just trying to justify what had happened. Maybe it’s the only way he could cope. I just walked away, before I said something I’d regret.
In Yekaterinburg, another woman, Alexandra (name changed), visited her local draft office with a story about a relative interested in enlisting. She was told he would be accepted “no matter what.”
“It felt like they had a green light to take absolutely anyone,” she said. “While I was there, a man who looked to be close to 60 was handed a referral for a medical exam. He said they told him it would be ‘just a formality.’ I told them my relative had heart problems and mental health issues — that he’d even been hospitalized in a psychiatric facility a few years ago. They said it wasn’t a problem. And they reminded me about the bonus payments the regional government had announced in mid-March.”
Alexandra added that the recruiter even explained how a soldier could open multiple bank cards linked to their military account — one for them, one for their family. “I might be exaggerating, but it really felt like she was trying to sell me a contract,” Alexandra said. “When I asked, ‘Are people really signing up?’ she answered, ‘Yes — signups have been good, especially since they increased the payout 2.5-fold.’”
‘People are trying to cash in’
The local draft office employee in the small Siberian town of about 30,000 people only spoke with reporters on condition of anonymity. (The name of the town and the source were withheld for her safety.) According to her, March brought both a “peak in volunteers” and a “record death toll.”
“Recruitment is in full swing — it’s at a high point,” she said. “After all, the regional payout has gone up to one million rubles [$12,000].” She attributed the surge in enlistment to the fact that many potential volunteers had been holding out since last fall, waiting for the most “enticing” incentives from local authorities. “They were waiting for the payments to hit the ceiling — and now with talk of peace, a lot of cunning people are trying to cash in, hoping there won’t be time to send them to the front. By the end of March, we had a huge influx.”
The medical screening process, she said, has never posed a serious barrier.
“It’s routine, formal — just something you have to show up for. I’ve never heard of anyone being turned away,” she said. “There are definitely more contract soldiers this year than last. And more deaths this month than in any other — across all three years of the [full-scale] war. That includes conscripts, contract soldiers, and prisoners recruited from the Federal Penitentiary Service.”
Local human rights advocates confirmed the numbers. According to Alexey, a rights worker based in the same town, 13 residents had already died by the time he checked in March 2025 — and the month wasn’t over yet.
“That’s already the highest monthly death toll we’ve ever seen in this town,” he said. “There had never been more than eight in a single month before. In total, 124 residents have died since the war began.”
Experts say the sharp rise in casualties is unsurprising. In March 2025, the Russian military suffered heavy losses in its offensive to retake territory in the country’s western Kursk region. Midway through the month, pro-war channels began reporting on Russian advances in border areas that had fallen under Ukrainian control the previous summer.
Meanwhile, journalists from iStories noted that Russia’s 2025–2027 federal budget earmarks 90 billion rubles (more than $1 billion) for sign-on bonuses — 30 billion rubles (about $358 million) annually. According to their calculations, 345,000 people signed contracts with the Defense Ministry in 2023. In just the first half of 2024, another 166,000 had already enlisted.
Military commissariat staff interviewed by Sibir.Realii said that based on the first quarter alone, 2025 is likely to surpass both years.