How much are Russian soldiers being paid to fight Putin's war?
Russia is estimated to have lost more than 300,000 troops – killed or permanently injured in Ukraine.
The Kremlin is replacing large numbers of them with contracted troops, plus convicts who are promised pardons if they fight.
Forces News has looked at how much they are being paid to participate in Vladimir Putin's 'Special Military Operation'.
Recruiting manpower
The numbers seem to vary, but last summer the Russian government raised military salaries by 10.5% to try to entice more men and women to sign up.
The Russian military is expanding to around 2,000,000 strong and it gets its manpower two ways – through people signing contracts or through conscription.
All men aged between 18 and 30 have to serve a year in the Russian forces – officially at least those conscripts cannot be sent to Ukraine – but the Russian ministry of defence (MOD) has admitted some have been and some have been killed.
Contracted
A growing number of the troops in Ukraine are contracted. They will serve a three-year term, receiving room and board as well as medical insurance, clothing allowance, and a pension after 20 years of service.
These are men who sign up, usually for three years, usually in response to advertisements the Russian MOD posts on job websites which often promise a host of benefits.
The starting wage for them is 160,000 roubles a month, ($1,792 or £1,408), which in Russia is seen as a good salary.
It is around three-and-a-half times the national average, according to official Russian government figures. The average monthly wage earned by Russians is 71,419 roubles a month ($756 or £639).
It is estimated this is more than a dozen times the average in many of the country's poorer and remote regions, which is where a lot of Vladimir Putin's troops are being recruited.
One-off payments
Back in November 2022, Putin also gave contracted troops, and reservists called up as part of his partial mobilisation, a one-off payment of 195,000 roubles ($2,178 or £1,710).
This came with a price when, a few months later, the Kremlin banned volunteer soldiers from ending their contracts.
Convicts
Russia is also recruiting convicts, a practice that began with the Wagner Group.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the private Russian military organisation, visited prisons to offer cash and pardons to anyone who signed up, provided they survived battles like Bakhmut, which many did not.
It is thought Wagner troops were being offered around 240,000 rubles a month ($2,690; £2,108).
Reportedly the Wagner troops earned about $900 a month more than contracted soldiers.
Their relatives also got $60,000 if they were killed and they were given that money in cash to avoid paying tax.
Prigozhin, of course, was reportedly killed in a plane crash in August 2023, and the Wagner Group has all but disappeared from the battlefield, but the Russian MOD is now reportedly recruiting prisoners in the same way to man its Storm-Z units, offering them pardons if they survive for six months.
These units have essentially become penal battalions, made up of convicts plus Russian soldiers who are sent there as a punishment for offences like drunkenness.
Some former prisoners have said they were offered 205,000 rubles a month ($2,298 or £1,805) to sign up, plus 3m rubles ($33,664 or £26,453) for an injury or 5m rubles ($55,844 £43, 920) if they are killed.
Issues
There is money to be had to fight for Russia in Ukraine, but there are also major caveats – first, of course, that soldiers may well not survive.
The UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) says 302,000 Russian troops have been killed or permanently injured in Ukraine.
And there is also the small matter of actually getting paid, with many stories circulating of the Russian Defense Ministry 'forgetting' to register these contracted soldiers.
This means they do not get combat pay, and if they are killed there is no record they ever existed, and, of course, if they ever want to complain or leave that is not easy either.
The Russian army has some grim punishments like a basement cell they call 'the pit'. Reportedly, soldiers can buy their way out, but if they do not have thousands of dollars, the Russian MOD can quite legally just renew a contract without permission and send them straight back to the frontline in Ukraine.
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