Vladimir Putin signed a law on Monday May 25 exempting participants in the war in Ukraine from repaying their debt, a new example of the Kremlin’s incentives to recruit soldiers.
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This measure was adopted in a context of difficulties in recruiting people for the front line.
The new law covers citizens who signed a contract with the army from May 1, 2026 for a period of at least one year, as well as their family members. Cancellation is not unconditional and applies to loans not exceeding 10 million rubles (approximately 120,000 euros) in total.
The law also provides for possible cancellation of the debts of the spouse of the person signing the contract. The document also provides for the termination of the credit obligations of contract workers and their families in the event of the death of a soldier at the front or if he is seriously injured. Putin signed a similar law in the fall of 2024. It was then proposed to cancel the debts of people who signed a contract after December 1, 2024.
Privileges for those involved
This new measure was expected: after the total invasion of Ukraine, Putin and the regional authorities systematically announced support measures for soldiers and their families to stimulate the recruitment of contract soldiers and support war veterans after the announcement of partial mobilization in September 2022.
Thus, according to the President of the Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, 164 laws aimed at supporting the fighters were adopted in four years.
On veteran-svo.ru, one of many such sites on the Russian Internet, the list of benefits granted to those ready to fight seems endless: from large lump sum compensations (starting from around 5,000 euros), salaries and “incentive bonuses” to no less significant rewards in the event of “dismissal”.
There is no shortage of privileges: from priority admission to higher education for military personnel and their children, to cheap mortgage loans, as well as significant discounts and the absence of waiting lists in many other areas. Added to this are regional support measures. According to the website, this year they allow certain entrepreneurs to receive up to 4.5 million rubles (around 50,000 euros) when signing a contract with the Ministry of Defense. For comparison, the minimum wage in Russia is around 300 euros per month.
Websites that encourage people to participate in war often present it as an important step toward a better life. A special provision is made for detainees, for whom the front becomes a means of freeing themselves from criminal prosecution.
Observers estimate that the number of prisoners in Russia has decreased in five years by more than 180,000 people, a drop of 40%. This is largely due to the sending of convicts to war. According to the human rights project Gulagu.net, the Russian army has recruited more than 180,000 prisoners since 2022. At the end of March 2026, Mediazona and the BBC confirmed the deaths of more than 23,000 prisoners.
Pressures on prisoners, students and workers
Despite record bonuses, debt forgiveness and the societal narrative built around “war heroes”, fewer and fewer people are engaging in contract service.
“Putin’s decree to cancel loans to new war veterans is primarily a tool for recruiting new soldiers under contract without further mass mobilization“, comments political analyst Aleksandar Djokic in an interview with Euronews.
“The Kremlin is banking on financial motivation: payments, benefits and now debt relief, especially for people from poor and indebted regions. This shows that the government is preparing for a long war and trying to maintain the influx of people through economic incentives.“.
According to Deutsche Welle, around 800 to 1,000 people signed a contract with the Defense Ministry every day in the first three months of 2026, around 20% fewer than in the same period in 2025.
In this context, Moscow is looking for new forms of recruitment. At the end of 2025 and especially this year, the pressure on students at Russian universities has intensified. Students who have not passed some of their exams are recruited in a particularly active manner, a contract was offered to them as an option so as not to abandon the university.
Another new trend is the pressure on prisoners who, at the start of the full-scale war, signed contracts much more willingly, but who, from January 2025, were deprived of all payments by government decree.
Thus, Radio Liberty reports the pressure exerted on prisoners in the Penza region. “They are tortured, beaten and threatened with rape, forcing them to sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense“, declare relatives of detainees who are serving their sentences.
The trend towards covert forced mobilization is also confirmed by the Institute for the Study of War, based in the United States. According to its data, since March 20, the governor of the Ryazan region has forced medium and large businesses to select their own employed for contracts with the Ministry of Defense.
Towards a toughening of the Russian authorities
In its report entitled “The Coming Crisis in Russia’s Political Economy”, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), based in London, foresees a real turn of the screw: mobilization, closing of borders, abolition of post-Soviet civil liberties and transition to a planned economy Soviet type.
These predictions are already partly coming true: Russia has imposed restrictions, going so far as to completely ban many foreign messaging services and websites. The pressure is increasing in a context of a sharp deterioration in the economic situation, a sharp slowdown in the advance of the Russian army in Ukraine, an intensification of Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory, in particular on oil refineries, an increase in the number of Russian victims, and the authorities’ apparent preoccupation with questions of security, which resulted in a May 9 parade in a reduced format.
In this context, propagandists also adjust their speech. For example, Margarita Simonyan, director of RT, said on television that, in her opinion, the war with Ukraine “ended on February 28, 2022, six days after it began“. According to the propagandist, since this date, Russia is no longer fighting only against Ukraine, but against Europe.
