Russia lost nearly half of troops it mobilized in 2022, analysis shows
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About 300,000 Russians were mobilized
in the fall of 2022, and by 2025 only a little more than half remained in
service, Janis
Kluge, an economist with the German Institute for International and
Security Affairs, wrote on Aug. 3.
Kluge’s estimate is based on official Russian payroll figures for both mobilized troops and contract soldiers.
“Based on federal budget data, it is possible to directly estimate the numbers of both mobilized personnel and contract soldiers fighting in Ukraine,” he writes.
Under presidential decree No. 788, each person mobilized in 2022 received a one-time payment of RUB158,000 ($1,960), while contract soldiers receive a monthly supplement of RUB15,000. By dividing overall budgetary outlays by those payment amounts, he estimated the approximate numbers in each category on the front.
His calculations show the number of mobilized personnel on the front declined steadily: about 293,000 at the end of 2022–early 2023, 246,300 in 2024, and 168,500 by mid-2025. If that trend continued, he said, only slightly more than 100,000 may remain now.
At the same time, the number of contract soldiers rose sharply: from about 230,400 in 2023 to 554,800 in 2025, helping offset losses among the mobilized and bringing the total on the front to roughly 723,400 by 2024.
Kluge noted, however, that growth in contract troops still falls short of annual recruitment. In 2023, 372,700 contract soldiers were recruited but “permanent losses” among them reached 182,300. In 2025, 385,100 were recruited and losses rose to 251,000.
“In other words, it would mean that Russia loses almost half
of its active troops in Ukraine each year,” he concluded.
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