Russia is bleeding. The country’s casualty  rate has reached unprecedented levels,  

with tens of thousands of soldiers being  sent home either wrapped in bandages or  

cooped up in caskets. In the past, those numbers  wouldn’t have fazed President Vladimir Putin and  

his Kremlin commanders. They could always find  more men to replace those who had fallen. Now,  

it’s a major problem, because just as Russia’s  losses are rising, its recruitment levels are  

falling. For several months in a row, the number  of dead and wounded has surpassed the number  

of people willing to join the Russian ranks,  forcing the Kremlin to resort to increasingly  

desperate measures in order to control this  spiraling crisis. This has been a long time  

coming. Russian commanders have adopted reckless  and wasteful tactics since day one of this war,  

sending their soldiers into battle without proper  preparation, training, or equipment. For many,  

the so-called “special military operation”  was little more than a suicide mission,  

and as Ukraine put up much stronger resistance  than Moscow had expected, it didn’t take long for  

the first Russian soldiers to fall in battle. As  the war progressed, it only got worse. In order to  

reduce the number of tanks and armored vehicles  that were being destroyed, the Kremlin changed  

tack, ordering troops to charge on Ukrainian  positions without any armor to back them up.  

Countless squads of men have since been sent to  their deaths. Brothers, fathers, and sons treated  

like little more than pieces of meat, thrown  into the firing lines by clueless commanders  

who continue to believe that their “brute force”  tactics will, eventually, bear fruit, despite  

literally years of evidence to the contrary.  Meanwhile, Ukraine grew steadily stronger with  

each passing year. It was no longer merely  digging in and withstanding Russia’s attacks;  

it was actively seeking out and destroying its  enemies, mastering the art of drone warfare while  

developing bigger, better, and more explosive  weapons to use against the Kremlin’s war machine.  

Even casual observers could see the writing on  the wall: Russia’s foolish strategy was utterly  

unsustainable in the long term, and it was only  a matter of time until the country’s catastrophic  

casualty rate proved too much to bear. Indeed, as  far back as February 2025, the Institute for the  

Study of War noted that the country was reaching  the stage where its recruitment would no longer be  

enough to counteract its casualties: “Russia’s  current force generation apparatus appears  

unable to recruit the manpower that the Russian  military needs to sustain Russia’s current rate  

of offensive operations.” The signs were all  there. It wasn’t just that Russia was losing  

troops in enormous numbers, but there was also  ample evidence to suggest that the country was  

starting to have a tougher time adding members to  its military ranks. Russia’s regional authorities,  

for example, had started running more intensive  months-long promotional campaigns to attract  

new recruits, while increasing the one-off  payments made to them and their families if  

they chose to sign up. Those payments even began  to dramatically exceed the average Russian salary,  

with the Kremlin clearly hoping that more cash  would be enough of an incentive to bring more  

people on board. The Russian Minister of Defense  also took steps to amend legislation in order to  

allow people with certain diseases and disorders  into the army. The country even asked one of its  

few remaining allies – North Korea – to send  some troops to help liberate Russian territory  

that Ukraine had managed to seize in the country’s  Kursk region. Seeing all this evidence piled up,  

a rational country would have adjusted its  tactics on the ground in order to reduce its  

casualty numbers. Its commanders might have  stopped ordering quite as many fruitless,  

suicidal assault missions along the front lines,  for example, which could have allowed more Russian  

troops to stay alive, intact, and ready to fight  another day. But Russia has rarely been perceived  

like a rational country in recent years. Even when  its casualty numbers were climbing far beyond what  

anyone would classify as sustainable, it  stubbornly persisted with its foolish and  

reckless tactics. New recruits continued to arrive  on the front lines, only to be quickly dispatched  

into dangerous kill zones. Many were killed  within their first weeks of service. Indeed,  

as far back as late 2024, leading analysts  revealed that the average life expectancy  

of a Russian recruit was between two weeks and a  month. As time went by, it became even shorter. It  

was only a matter of time until Russia failed to  recruit enough soldiers to replace its frontline  

losses—and that moment appears to have arrived in  late 2025, almost four years into the fighting.

Reports in early 2026 revealed that Russia had  

begun losing several thousand more  troops than it was able to recruit.

It was a major moment in the war, but  Ukraine had to wait and see if it was  

just a one-off incident, or the start of  a dramatic new trend. It was the latter.

The same pattern continued in the following  months, and again: for multiple consecutive months  

spanning late 2025 into early 2026, Russia lost  more soldiers than it recruited. While the exact  

numbers are impossible to obtain and estimates  vary from source to source, the “I Want to Live”  

initiative – a state hotline set up in Ukraine to  help Russian soldiers surrender safely – claims  

that Russia recruited just over 80,000 people  in the first three months of 2026. Meanwhile,  

data from the Ukrainian General Staff and repeated  by the Institute for the Study of War said that,  

during that same period of time, the Kremlin  suffered losses of over 85,000. This was backed up  

by data collated by the German researcher, Janis  Kluge, who looked at how Russia’s recruitment  

levels have changed since 2024. Kluge found that,  while 2024 was a relatively stable year and Russia  

was consistently able to hit or even exceed  its recruitment targets, rates began to decline  

throughout 2025. Some months saw a 20% or higher  decline in new recruits compared to the prior  

months. And by 2026, the difference was clear  to see: in the first few months of this year,  

Russia was recruiting just 800 soldiers per day,  on average, but in the first quarter of 2025,  

it was bringing in anywhere from 1,000 to 1,200  a day. As a result, I Want To Live and other  

organizations have predicted that Russia will most  likely fall short of its stated goal to recruit  

409,000 contract soldiers in 2026. And it’s hardly  surprising. There are numerous reasons why the  

country is finding it increasingly difficult to  find people who are willing to sign a contract  

that will most likely result in their death just  a couple of weeks later. Back at the start of the  

war, it wasn’t as difficult. Back then, Russia  could still rely on its propaganda machine to  

make people believe that the “special military  operation” was going smoothly, that Ukraine’s  

people were just waiting to be liberated by brave  Russian heroes, and that the entire operation  

would be over in no time. Plenty of naïve and  gullible able-bodied men believed the stories.  

They thought they could sign up for the military,  cash a hefty check to help themselves or their  

families, do their time on the front lines, and  then head back home once the conquest of Kyiv was  

complete. But weeks turned into months and months  turned into years, and the Kremlin’s lies became  

easier and easier to see straight through. While  plenty of people were still willing to fight,  

many began to realize the truth. They knew that  agreeing to go to the front lines of Ukraine was,  

in effect, a death sentence. They could see that  Russia wasn’t winning this war, and that it would  

most likely continue for years to come, and an  increasing number of people wanted to have no  

part in that. As time has gone by, it has become  much harder for Russia’s recruiters to sell people  

on the idea that they should go and fight. So,  they got desperate. They didn’t just increase the  

financial incentives on offer, they also resorted  to more underhanded tactics to meet their quotas.  

They went into jails, for example, and offered  convicts the chance to leave their cells and  

have their sentences wiped out if they’d agree  to do a six or 12-month stint as soldiers. They  

started to recruit people with serious or terminal  illnesses, like HIV, tuberculosis, or hepatitis C,  

who would usually be exempt from military service.  They coerced people with alcohol addictions and  

drug problems into signing military contracts,  many of whom reportedly had no idea what they  

were agreeing to at the time. They threatened  ethnic minorities and immigrants with deportation  

unless they joined the army, and piled pressure on  the poorest communities across the country. They  

even tricked and trafficked thousands of men from  Africa to join the war, using false pretenses,  

outright lies, or false promises of big salaries  to lure them away from their homelands. But none  

of it has been enough to counterbalance the  casualties. Russia is still losing more men  

than it can find. So, now, it’s getting even  more desperate. Before we go deeper into that,  

you’re watching The Military Show — and if you  haven’t subscribed yet, now’s the time. Russia’s  

recruiters have tried targeting poor people,  minorities, the ill, and the infirm. Now,  

they’re focusing on a new demographic: youth. An  astonishing CNN report, published in April 2026,  

has uncovered an enormous recruitment campaign  aimed exclusively at university students and  

graduates across Russian regions. And, like other  recruitment campaigns before, this one is also  

riddled with lies. For example, after analyzing  numerous Russian university websites, social  

media pages, and local media reports, as well as  speaking directly with the students themselves,  

CNN found that Russia’s recruiters have promised  students one-year, fixed-term contracts, as well  

as the ability to learn high-tech skills without  having to serve anywhere near the front lines. In  

reality, much of this is likely to be completely  untrue, with experts warning that any students  

who sign up could be at risk of being dispatched  to front-line kill zones at any moment, without  

warning or recourse. The campaign seemingly  started in January, just a couple of months  

after Russia’s Ministry of Defense announced the  formation of a new military branch: the Unmanned  

Systems Forces – a unit dedicated entirely to  drone warfare. Soon after, universities all  

over Russia started sharing military recruitment  videos, images, and posters on their social media  

channels, encouraging or even advising graduates  to sign up. Some went further, hosting Russian  

soldiers and veterans, who gave motivational,  propaganda-laden speeches to students about  

the so-called “special military operation.” An  independent Russian news outlet that specializes  

in student matters dug into the story further,  finding that at least 269 universities and  

colleges across Russia and occupied Ukrainian  territories are actively involved in this  

recruitment campaign. This includes some of  the most prestigious institutions in the land,  

like the St. Petersburg State University, where  Putin himself studied, and the Higher School of  

Economics in Moscow, which actually held its  own “Unmanned Systems Festival” in February.  

Looking at the images, videos, and social posts,  it’s clear to see that this marketing campaign is  

aimed at the younger generation. One video, for  example, shows a young Russian man playing video  

games in his bedroom, while a voiceover states  “You were told you were wasting time on video  

games.” The gamer is then transformed into a drone  operator as the narration continues: “But there is  

a place where your experience is especially  valuable.” It’s a simple but potentially  

effective marketing trick, and the video game  theming is almost omnipresent in other marketing  

materials. One video from the Plekhanov Russian  University of Economics in Volgograd, for example,  

shows a split-screen display, with a gamer on one  side and a drone operator on the other, with the  

caption “Choose the right skin.” Some recruitment  posts even clearly state that “gamers” will be  

given priority in the application process. It’s a  huge amount of pressure to pile onto young people,  

many of whom may be wondering about their next  steps in life and lacking guidance, direction,  

or role models to help them choose the right path.  For some, this entire campaign also feels like a  

betrayal, as the very institutions that were  supposed to be forming and teaching them are  

now advocating for them to sign away their lives.  One student summed up their feelings on the matter  

to CNN: “Students are under immense pressure. Of  course, constantly hearing calls to join the SMO  

is very unpleasant. Realizing that the university  is doing everything it can to send you to war  

is even worse.” Another student revealed that  students who attended campus recruitment events  

were promised “mountains of gold” in the form of  “student debt relief, other perks, and, of course,  

just one year of service in the rear, far from  the front lines.” This is, without doubt, one of  

the most carefully planned recruitment campaigns  of the war so far. And it was one of the highest  

authorities in the country – the Russian Ministry  of Defense – that decided exactly how it should  

work. According to Russian military lawyer Artem  Klyga, the MOD issued very precise instructions  

to universities, telling them who to target and  how to attract their attention. The Ministry’s  

instructions state that both male and female  students should be targeted and that universities  

should emphasize that any willing recruits  will gain “unique knowledge and skills” while  

having a “lower risk of coming under enemy fire”  compared to a typical soldier. It also orders for  

significant financial incentives to be offered,  with a minimum of 400,000 rubles (nearly $5,000).  

Some universities are going much further than  that, though, like St. Petersburg State, which  

is offering one-off payments of around $56,000  just to sign up, followed by a base annual salary  

of nearly $70,000. Klyga notes that the money is  probably the only part of this entire campaign  

with any truth to it: “Everything [else] is a lie.  This is [a] simple contract with the Russian army,  

without deadline, without special term[s].”  Because all these ads fail to mention one very  

important fact: Putin has never formally canceled  the decree on partial mobilization he signed back  

in September 2022. That decree completely changed  the state of play for Russian military recruits,  

ruling that all new military contracts  “continue to be in force until the period  

of partial mobilization is over.” That period  is not yet over. So anyone who signs a contract  

now is still subject to this decree. In other  words, there’s no such thing as a fixed-term,  

one-year contract. The young men and women who  fall into this trap won’t be simply spending a  

year on the sidelines of the line, playing with  drones as though they’re real-life video games,  

before being sent safely home to their  families. They’ll be stuck out there,  

potentially until they either die or are too  badly wounded to keep fighting. And it gets worse.  

The promise of student recruits being stationed  far from the front lines is also not based on  

any real law or legislation. As Grigory Sverdlin,  operator of the anti-war charity “Get Lost” notes:  

“As soon as the person signs the contracts, he  is literally a slave of the Ministry of Defense.  

He can be sent to whatever unit the Ministry of  Defense will need. There is no way to be able to  

choose.” The good news is that a lot of students  know all this, or are at least aware enough to  

understand that signing up for this war is not a  smart idea. All of the students that CNN spoke to,  

for example, shared a common distrust of the  Kremlin’s propaganda. One claimed that none of his  

classmates or friends were considering signing a  contract, even if they were in difficult financial  

situations. Another added he didn’t “find this  nonsense convincing” and urged his classmates to  

“also understand that this is all a scam.” But  that doesn’t mean that the campaign is doomed  

to fail. It might not bring in new recruits in  sufficient numbers to fully replenish the flailing  

Russian ranks, but it could still be enough to  convince some of the more gullible, confused,  

or struggling students to sign on the dotted  line. Indeed, it appears that some universities  

are actively focusing their recruitment efforts  towards students who are most at risk of failing  

their courses. One student revealed that he was  called to a special group meeting, just for those  

who were falling behind in their studies, where  he and his classmates were encouraged to join  

the military. Another told an even more concerning  story, in which their university “almost expelled  

a third of our group and forced them to sign  a contract on the spot to keep their place.”  

And some universities are deploying increasingly  insidious tactics to hit their own recruitment  

quotas. There have been reports of some, for  example, shortening deadlines for students to  

complete and submit their coursework, effectively  making it harder for them to pass their classes  

with the grades they need. The logic is clear  to follow: make it harder for students to pass  

so more students fail, and those same struggling,  stressed out students will be easier to pressure  

into recruitment. One student added that staff  at her university were seeking out first-year  

students with mental health troubles, or those who  were having a hard time fitting in, and targeting  

them specifically. Such students are being invited  to “personal discussions” in which they’re offered  

jobs in the military to ensure they pass their  degrees and avoid crippling financial debt. These  

are quite stunning stories of clear emotional  abuse. Universities – places where people go  

to be nurtured, to learn, to gain the knowledge  and skills they need to go out and achieve their  

dreams or become productive members of society  – are actively turning on their own students,  

cruelly exploiting their fears and stresses, all  to feed the insatiable Kremlin war machine. As  

one student concludes: “I never imagined that my  beloved university would become something I’d be  

protecting my friends from.” But that is what  Putin’s Russia is today. A place where people  

are treated like cattle, where soldiers are seen  as little more than pieces of meat, and where even  

teenagers, with all their lives ahead of them, are  being ruthlessly targeted in the places they’re  

supposed to feel the safest. And it’s all because  the Russian Army is in its weakest position yet,  

which you can learn all about in this video, which  looks at how the Kremlin’s stubborn tactics have  

brought its military to its knees. Alternatively,  check out this video for the extraordinary story  

of how Kremlin troops are being made to surrender  not to soldiers, but to drones and robots,  

as Ukraine brings the next generation of  warfare right to Russia’s doorstep. For  

more insightful breakdowns just like this, be  sure to subscribe to the Military Show today.