Russia plans to recruit almost a quarter of a million more contract soldiers.

According to the draft expenditure of Russia's budget for the next three years, the country intends to recruit at least 225,000 people for contract military service. Expenditures in the amount of 90 billion rubles for one-time payments upon signing a contract with the Ministry of Defense, 30 billion rubles annually, are provided for this, reports Important News.

Currently, such a payment amounts to 400,000 rubles. If this amount remains unchanged, there will be enough funds to recruit 225,000 contract soldiers. However, if the payments are reduced to the previously established amount of 195,000 rubles, the number of recruits may increase to 461.5 thousand people.

Interestingly, in the first half of 2024, more than 32 billion rubles have already been spent on one-time payments to new contract soldiers, which exceeds the declared amount in the budget for the next year. This may indicate a possible increase in the planned amount for recruiting contract soldiers in the budget.

The large-scale increase in the number of contract soldiers in the Russian army may be related to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and the heavy losses suffered by the Russian forces.

Recall that the Russian command has prohibited Russians from moving on military equipment.