When Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered what he called a “partial mobilization” of fighting-age men to fuel the war in Ukraine in September 2022, seven months into the full-scale invasion, the effect was visible on the streets and on the country’s borders.
Recruiters raided offices, lurked outside apartment buildings, and strode through subway trains in search of men subject to the call-up, and hundreds of thousands of Russians fled the country to avoid being sent to the front in Ukraine, joining an exodus that began after the invasion in February.
With Putin at pains to avoid repeating such an unpopular step, the Russian military has turned to an array of methods to keep the flow of soldiers to the war going, from recruiting in jails, prisons, and homeless shelters to finding ways to send conscripts into combat despite the fact that it’s illegal.
In December 2023, Schemes and Systema -- RFE/RL’s Ukrainian and Russian investigative units, respectively -- revealed that Redut, an ostensibly private mercenary company that has sent many thousands of men to fight in Ukraine, is in fact a state-controlled entity: a recruitment network run by Russia’s main military intelligence agency, known as the GRU.
A new investigation by Systema shows how the military has cast its net wider still, using a new, alternative system called Dobrokor -- short for Dobrovolchesky Korpus (Volunteer Corps) -- to attract recruits who might balk at the conditions and requirements of service under the aegis of Redut or regular Defense Ministry contracts.
Joining up through Redut or Dobrokor differs in one major way from signing a traditional service contract with the Defense Ministry: Contracts with the ministry are automatically prolonged until the end of what Russia calls the “special military operation,” meaning these soldiers are not off the hook until Russia’s war in Ukraine is officially over. Mercenary contracts imply service until the end of the contract term -- often six, eight, or 12 months -- and are not automatically renewed.
But there’s a potentially deadly drawback: There is evidence that soldiers recruited through either of the volunteer networks may be seen by military brass as particularly suited to being used as cannon-fodder for the Russian military, whose gradual advances have come at a huge human expense. The Russian casualty toll, killed or wounded, is believed to have reached 1 million this summer.
'Second-Rate Infantry'
In a taped conversation with officers that was leaked late last year, Aleksandr Borodai, a Russian lawmaker who heads a group called the Union of Donbass Volunteers, said that military brass sees volunteer soldiers as a “second-rate infantry” whose task is to “exhaust the enemy’s manpower” as much as possible before regular army units mount an attack. In the same recording, he refers to volunteers as “expendable manpower.”
Dobrokor and Redut are both run by the GRU, and both channel recruits into roughly the same constellation of units, which cater to a range of interests: Some have a nationalist or Orthodox Christian bent, others focus on Cossacks, hardcore soccer fans, or other groupings. The Dobrokor website lists 27 units in all.
Through both Dobrokor and Redut, men aged 18 to 55 and women 18 to 45 can enlist. The women serve in medical units. Pay starts at 205,000 rubles ($2,600) a month and can be higher depending on the role of the mercenary.
But there are big differences between the two. Redut operates in a quasi-legal gray area -- a situation that has potential pros and cons for Russians who go that route to join up.
In 2023, Redut recruiters told RFE/RL that benefits include the ability to quit before your contract expires without the threat of a court-martial and the potential for payment in cash, which can be hidden from creditors, courts, the government, or a former spouse. Redut was created “so that people could avoid paying taxes or, for example, any court costs,” one recruiter told Systema at the time.
It is also easier to join up through Redut than through other channels. Health and fitness requirements are lax, and a criminal record is not a barrier to service as it is with the Defense Ministry or with Dobrokor.
But there are downsides to Redut: recruits are not eligible for a regional signing-bonus, which can be substantial, and it can be much harder for veterans or survivors to get monetary payouts for disability, death, and other circumstances.
'You Don’t Exist'
A volunteer recruited through the Dobrokor system has the status of a service member, including all the social guarantees and payments, a recruiter for the Nevsky unit who goes by the call sign Oculist told Systema. With Redut, he said, from a legal point of view “you don’t exist. There’s no service, nothing: No hospitals, no rehabilitation, nothing.”
For this article, Systema journalists called recruiters on publicly advertised lines, identifying themselves only if asked.
Signing up though Dobrokor can provide more security and more reliable access to bonuses and benefits. Unlike with Redut, however, a Dobrokor recruit cannot quit before their contracts is up without risking consequences, including potential criminal charges for desertion.
“You can’t run away -- not without trouble,” Irina, a recruiter with the Union of Donbass Volunteers, told Systema.
As of May, military prosecutors had sent to Russian courts more than 20,000 desertion cases dating back to the start of the full-scale invasion, the Russian-language outlet Mediazona reported.
And the signing bonuses for Russians joining via Dobrokor are smaller than they are for those who go the traditional Defense Ministry route, where the figure can be up to some 3.6 million rubles ($46,000).
“Guys from various regions write and say, 'Here the bonus is 100,000 rubles ($1,280), here it’s 50,000 ($640),'” a recruiter for the mercenary unit Vostok (East) told RFE/RL.
In addition to Dobrokor and Redut, the Defense Ministry has created its own recruitment channel, BARS. Some recruiting organizations, such as the Union of Donbass Volunteers, bring in recruits through all three systems.
Still, far fewer Russians join by signing a traditional Defense Ministry contract. More than 18,000 people joined volunteer units in the first half of 2025, while more than 210,000 new contract soldiers joined the ranks, former President Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Putin’s Security Council, told a meeting on July 2.
Janis Kluge, an expert at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, estimated that the second number is a little lower, at about 190,000.
Another difference between Redut and Dobrokor: Recruits joining through Dobrokor are provided with uniforms and basic equipment, while “at Redut they give you nothing,” the Vostok recruiter told RFE/RL.
Not right away, at least. Recruiters said those joining through Redut are given 50,000 rubles ($640) as compensation for those purchases along with their pay for the third month of service -- if they live that long.
