2025-03-04T05:09:37Z Read in app Russian recruitment is still going strong into 2025, and Ukraine expects Moscow to keep hiring people straight out of criminal trials, a top intelligence official said. AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.Have an account? A top Ukrainian official said Russia beat its 2024 recruitment goal and is still doing so in 2025.That's after Moscow already raised its goal to 430,000 troops last year.It comes as Russia has poured cash into sign-up bonuses and passed laws to recruit crime suspects.The deputy chief of Ukraine's military intelligence said Russia is exceeding its recruitment targets, affirming Moscow's earlier claim of hiring over 440,000 soldiers in 2024.That recruiting success is set to continue in 2025, Maj. Gen. Vadim Skibitsky said in an interview published by the news agency RBC Ukraine on Monday."In January, they fulfilled their recruitment plans by 107%," said Skibitsky. "This issue remains relevant, and the Russian authorities have no problem with staffing their troops and filling losses."Skibitsky said Russia initially set a hiring target of 380,000 troops in 2024 but raised it to 430,000 recruits. And beat that goal, he added.In December, Dmitry Medvedev, the chairman of Russia's security council, said Moscow had signed contracts with 440,000 new soldiers in 2024.Skibitsky confirmed that number in his Monday interview and said that Russia officially plans to recruit another 343,000 soldiers in 2025."But based on the experience of 2024, we know that these plans inevitably change, in the upward direction," he said.Recruiting at that scale is allowing Russia to continue fighting intensely in Ukraine, Skibitsky said."It is important to understand that almost 80% of those recruited under contract are used to replace combat losses," he told RBC Ukraine.These reported figures come as the Kremlin has poured cash into one-time recruitment bonuses for the military just one of many ways it's pushing its economy and spending toward defense.In July, Russian leader Vladimir Putin signed a decree that more than doubled the baseline sign-up bonus from 195,000 rubles to 400,000 rubles for the rest of 2024.The 400,000 ruble payout is worth about $4,450 now. But some regions upped their bonuses to nearly 2 million rubles last year, putting them on par with the US military's sign-on payments."For the Russian Federation, these are very large sums," Skibitsky told RBC Ukraine.Federal statistics from the Russian government in December cited the average monthly wage in the country as 86,500 rubles.Ukraine expects Russia to also significantly ramp up the number of soldiers it recruits from prisons or criminal trials.With Russia already actively recruiting from prisons, Putin signed a bill in October allowing those who face criminal charges to avoid their trials or convictions if they enlist in the military.Skibitsky said Russia's plans for 2025 include 30% of its forces being made up of "special contingents," which describe units fielding inmates or soldiers who signed up to avoid charges.That's up from 15% of its forces involving such troops last year, Skibitsky said."This issue is already arising for the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation what to do with these people and how to work with them," he said.Analysts from the Washington-based think tank Institute for the Study of War wrote that Russia likely increased its recruitment target in 2024 because that's when it stepped up the intensity of its assaults in Ukraine.Moscow has, over the last year, started throwing thousands of men daily at Ukrainian positions in ground assaults, sustaining high casualties but also pressuring Kyiv's tired forces on the front lines.ISW analysts wrote that Russia will likely have to raise its recruitment quota again this year to maintain that strategy."Continued Western military aid would help Ukrainian forces inflict additional losses on the Russian military that would likely intensify Russia's economic and military issues and force Putin into making concessions during meaningful negotiations in 2025," they wrote.