The Russian military is seeing an influx of older contract soldiers who are largely seen as detrimental to its war effort in Ukraine, the investigative news outlet Vyorstkareported Wednesday, citing anonymous military and parliamentary sources.Volunteer fighters aged 45 and over now make up half of new recruits in Moscow, a senior Mayors Office source was cited as saying.
The average age of recruits has risen from 40 at the start of the year to about 50, said another Moscow Mayors Office source.Theyre all sick, a Russian soldier fighting in Ukraine was quoted as saying of these troops.
Their legs hurt, their heads hurt, and theyre slow.Russias Armed Forces have been carrying out a mass campaign to promote contract service since the spring of 2023.In recent months, regional and federal authorities have offered increasing financial and other incentives to bolster its ranks in Ukraine without turning to a new round of politically risky mobilization.Vyorstkas report on the countrys aging manpower is in part corroborated by the BBCs Russian service and the independent news website Mediazonas research into Russias verified military death toll.The outlets identified 2,475 volunteer soldiers over 45 years old who died in Ukraine so far this year, a figure thats half of Russias overall death toll in 2024.