Hunting for new recruits
Russia’s rising recruitment efforts in Africa and the Middle East also suggest it’s finding it harder to sign up new soldiers at home. Frontelligence Insight has obtained several thousand records with personal details of African and Middle Eastern citizens fighting for Russia in Ukraine, and has seen a significant uptick in activity.
“For example, one dataset of 1,045 sign-up records shows that between 2023 and 2024, 394 people from Africa and the Middle East signed contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense, while in just the first half of 2025, 651 contracts were recorded — nearly double the previous pace,” Frontelligence Insight said.
Russian efforts to recruit abroad have focused on economically disadvantaged countries. Recruits are often lured with promises of life-changing money, sometimes equivalent to nearly a decade of average local wages, as well as assurances (often fraudulent) of noncombat roles such as cooks, the group said.
Overall, Frontelligence Insight analytics see a major trend across the Russian army: rising sign-up bonuses, expanded recruitment from those held in pretrial detention and growing pressure on conscripts to sign contracts with the Russian defense ministry and be sent into Ukraine.
“All of this suggests that Russia is struggling to sustain recruitment via traditional monetary methods. If this trend continues, the Kremlin will face a choice between resorting to drastic measures such as broader mobilization or confronting the same manpower shortages that have been a problem for Ukraine’s military for the past two years,” the analysts said.
Once in Ukraine, those Russian troops face deadly conditions. Ukrainian drones hunt individual soldiers, artillery and rockets hit supply lines and using armored vehicles is now rare because the risks of being hit are so high. Soldiers used in “meat wave” assaults report staggering casualties.
“In June 2025, our team assessed that Russia was losing roughly 8,400–10,500 personnel per month as killed in action,” said Frontelligence Insight.