Russian Officials Fined for Failing to Meet War Recruitment Targets

Officials in Russian regions are being fined en masse for failing to meet targets for recruiting contract soldiers for the war against Ukraine.

This was reported in an investigation by the media outlet Vot Tak, which analyzed 61 court rulings.

Administrative penalties for failing to meet recruitment targets are provided for in at least 51 regions, while another 21 have regulations allowing officials to be punished for related violations.

For example, in Nevinnomyssk, Stavropol Krai, officials managed to recruit 11 of the 19 contract soldiers targeted.
In the Turkmensky district, the target was six people, but only four signed contracts. As a result, municipal deputy head Ilfat Khasimov was fined RUB 30,000.

A particularly large-scale recruitment campaign was organized in Bratsk, Irkutsk region. In 2025, the city was given a target of 645 contract soldiers.

To meet the target, the administration held 71 operational headquarters meetings. Starting in September, the meetings were held daily, and two special positions were created.

Three mobile teams of officials and police officers visited more than 14,000 addresses and held nearly 3,000 conversations.

The authorities also distributed brochures, placed advertisements and printed notices about military recruitment on municipal utility bills. However, as of November 1, only 369 people had agreed to go to war.

Failure to Meet the Target

In court, officials complained that they could not guarantee that recruitment targets would be met because, under the law, signing a contract with the Defense Ministry is voluntary.

For example, the Bratsk administration attempted to recruit more than 260 orphans and graduates of children’s homes who were awaiting housing, but ultimately only one person signed a contract.

Recruitment was also conducted at police stations, targeting suspects, defendants, people convicted without imprisonment and those under administrative supervision.

The authorities attributed the shortfall to residents traveling to other regions to sign contracts because of higher payments there, as well as the “sufficient level of wages at enterprises,” which negatively affected citizens’ willingness to enlist for the war.

Recruitment in 2026

From January through August, 234,000 Russians signed contracts with the Defense Ministry, according to calculations by Janis Kluge, a research fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, based on regional budget data.

Compared with the same period last year, the recruitment rate fell by 10%, while the number of new contract soldiers declined by 26,000.

In August alone, the decline reached 20%, despite the average one-time payment for signing a contract in the regions reaching a new record of nearly 1.8 million rubles.

To meet army recruitment quotas set by the Kremlin, local authorities are being forced to cut civilian spending and resort to forced mobilization.

Ukraine expects Russia to prepare to mobilize 300,000 people after the State Duma elections.