Moscow raises record payments to occupiers in Ukraine

Authorities in Moscow have offered to pay a huge bonus to recruits willing to join the war in Ukraine, the latest sign of growing pressure to find sufficient replacements for those killed and wounded on the battlefield. This was reported by Bloomberg.

A decree issued Tuesday by Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin mandates that 1.9 million rubles ($22,000) be paid to volunteers who sign a military contract.

This is in addition to the 600,000 rubles the city government pays annually in monthly instalments to supplement salaries and bonuses provided by the Russian Defence Ministry.

In total, according to the decree, war veterans will be able to earn up to 5.2 million rubles in the first year, provided they survive. The average monthly salary in Moscow last year was about 139,000 rubles, according to Rosstat.

The proposal has put Moscow at the forefront of a salary race among Russian regions seeking recruits for Putin's army, amid huge casualties in the war in Ukraine, now in its third year.

As the Kremlin seeks to avoid a repeat of the unpopular mobilisation of 300,000 reservists in September 2022, officials are relying on cash incentives to meet a target of recruiting 250,000 soldiers this year.

Western estimates put Russian casualties since the invasion began in February 2022 as high as 500,000.

Britain's Ministry of Defence said Russia may have lost 70,000 killed and wounded in the past two months alone, calling it the highest casualties since the war began.

The search for military manpower is exacerbating labour shortages in the Russian economy, forcing businesses to raise wages to compete.

That is fuelling inflation in Russia, prompting the central bank to warn it may raise a key interest rate to try to curb price rises at a meeting of policymakers this week.

Socialportal previously reported that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky did not rule out a face-to-face meeting and talks with Putin in a bid to end the war as soon as possible.