The taz presents under taz.de/unserfenster every Wednesday a weekly selection of current reports from critical Russian media. With this project, the taz Panter Foundation strengthens independent journalism and enables critical editorial teams to continue their work even under difficult conditions.
Opens on January 21, 2026 Verstka With the following article a window into Russia.
In the fourth year of the war, it became more difficult for the Kremlin to recruit Russians for the war against Ukraine. For example, Moscow sent a quarter fewer recruits to the front than in 2024. And military officials complained about the poor “quality” of the recruits.
The text (in Russian) is based on tape recordings and statistical data provided to Verstka by a source at Moscow City Hall. Verstka changed the names of the contract soldiers as well as the places from which they were recruited to the Ministry of Defense.
“Have you ever been to a psychiatrist?””Yes.””Yes?””No.””No? Have you ever been there?””Where?”
Such a dialogue took place last fall at the Moscow selection center for military service on a contract basis. The speaker, Stanislav, came to the capital from a village in the Sverdlovsk region to conclude a contract with the Defense Ministry. He couldn’t cope with the standard questionnaire: he couldn’t answer 17 of 25 questions. And had difficulty formulating his thoughts in the interview and could not name a single goal for his participation in the war.
“What are you thinking about?” (asks the selection office employee Stanislav) “About my wife.” “When did you get married?” “On Friday.” “And today is Sunday. Where did you get married?” “Here, in Moscow.” “Is she a Muscovite? Have you been here for a long time?” “Since Thursday.” “You arrived on Thursday, you got married on Friday and on Sunday you came to us to go to war?”
Stanislav then explained that he had actually wanted to come on Saturday, but something had come up. He met his wife on the Internet, he doesn’t know why he’s going to war, and he doesn’t understand the goals of this war either.
“What do you think, what is this war about, what are its objectives?” “I don’t know.” “You don’t know, but you want to take part in it and are willing to risk your life and health for it?” “Yes.”
Stanislav signed the contract. “Verstka” was unable to determine how Stanislav’s fate developed at the front. Cases like his have increased in the past year, reports Verstka.
Still, the number of volunteers is declining, says a Verstka source at Moscow City Hall. He provided the editorial team with data on the recruitment of contract soldiers in the capital over the past two years.
The numbers and trends were also confirmed to Verstka by a second interlocutor in the Moscow mayor’s administration: “Our hiring plans have actually failed. Instead of the promised growth of 30 to 40 percent, exactly the opposite has happened. This can be seen with the naked eye: there are fewer people, no influx.”
According to the medium, a total of 24,469 people were sent to war via Moscow in 2025 – a quarter fewer than in the previous year. In 2025, according to Vestka’s interlocutors, the decline in interest in the contract service was especially noticeable at the end of the year – in December only 879 people concluded contracts in Moscow. The decline is due to the fact that those who really wanted to go to the front had already done so long ago.
“We know that the war has already lasted longer than the Second World War. And every war leads to increasing fatigue, so the influx will naturally decrease,” says the interlocutor at the town hall, predicting a further decline in numbers due to the “deteriorating financial situation” in Russia.
“There were direct instructions from the leadership to relax the selection criteria and to reject them only in extreme cases. And these instructions to relax the criteria applied to all employees of the selection body,” a source in the town hall told Verstka.
Medical requirements were relaxed in August 2025 – for example, schizophrenia and some other psychiatric diagnoses are now no longer an obstacle to concluding a contract with the Russian army or a reason for dismissal from the Ministry of Defense. Soldiers diagnosed with personality disorders and other psychiatric diagnoses are sometimes picked up directly from hospitals.
Candidates are rejected only on the basis of “special articles”: for example, crimes related to sexual violence against minors. Those who are registered in a drug or psychiatric clinic will receive a rejection – but only if they are currently listed there.
As Verstka reported last yearan entire industry of private war recruits has formed in Russia, carrying out government contracts and earning hundreds of thousands of rubles.
Private recruiters today also talk about a decline in the “quality” of those willing to fight against Ukraine. One of them reported that in recent months only those with a criminal record have been going to the front – murderers and robbers.
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