Russia’s troop strength exaggerated: Putin's ‘640,000 soldiers’ claim exposed as false

 A joint investigation by the independent Russian media outlet Important Stories and the Russian open-source intelligence group Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT) has revealed that the Russian Ministry of Defense may have exaggerated its own troop numbers by as much as 50%.

In December 2023, the Russian Minister of Defense announced that there were 640,000 contract soldiers, but an investigation released on August 1, 2024, exposed that the actual number was far lower.

Using information from Russia’s federal budget expenditures, Important Stories and the Conflict Intelligence Team revealed that only 426,000 Russians received their one-time payment for signing a contract between the autumn of 2022 and April 2024. 

The Kyiv Independent reported on the story and noted that the investigation discovered there was a discrepancy of 214,000 soldiers missing from the number of contract troops cited by the Russian Ministry of Defense and the soldiers paid a contract bonus. 

The investigation also cited an unnamed source who said that some regions of Russia were not meeting their recruitment targets. The source explained several areas of the country were only hitting 50 to 60% of their recruitment targets. 

According to Bloomberg News, Putin doubled the bonus soldiers receive when they sign a new contract to fight in Ukraine, bringing the total amount to 400,000 rubles or roughly $4,600 according to the American news outlet. 

The news of the new bonus increase comes at a time when Russia is suffering heavy losses as it continues its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. According to the latest data from the Ukraine General Staff, Moscow has suffered nearly 600,000 casualties since February 2022.