Russia won't hit military recruitment targets despite boosting forces' wages, MOD says

Russia has continued to increase the wages of those joining its armed forces in Ukraine, but will still struggle to meet its recruitment targets, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) has said.

In a defence update on X, formerly known as Twitter, the MOD said joining Russia's armed forces had "become increasingly lucrative since the invasion".

"On 4 February 2022 Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that a lieutenant received 81,200 rubles per month," the post said.

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"By October 2022, he announced that even mobilised private soldiers would receive 195,000 rubles per month.

"Many junior ranks serving in Ukraine are now on over 200,000 rubles per month.

"This is over 2.7 times the Russian national average salary of 72,851 rubles.

"By way of comparison, 2.7 times the average UK salary would equate to over £90,000 a year."

However, the MOD said while the salary and benefits of joining the Russian military were a "strong incentive", especially to those from the poorer areas of Russia, Moscow was still unlikely to meet its targets for recruiting volunteers to the ranks.

The news comes after the MOD suggested Russia was cancelling a major annual exercise due to the military's poor performance in Ukraine.

The MOD said there was a high chance Moscow had called off Exercise ZAPAD (West) 23, its planned Joint Strategic Exercise (JSE), pointing out that this event should have been the culmination of the Russian military's training year.

"Russia has likely cancelled ZAPAD 23 because too few troops and equipment are available,” the MOD explained, adding that the Russian forces' under-performance in Ukraine suggested JSEs offered limited training value and were largely done for show.

"There is a realistic possibility that the Russian leadership is also sensitive to domestic criticism liable from running another slickly presented JSE during wartime," it concluded.