KYIV, Ukraine — Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law granting debt forgiveness to new army recruits who enlist to fight in Ukraine.
The measure, whose final version appeared on a government website Saturday, underscores Russia’s needs for military personnel in the nearly three-year war, even as it fired last week a new intermediate-range ballistic missile.
According to Russian state news agency Interfax, the new legislation allows those signing up for a one-year contract to write off bad debts of up to 10 million rubles ($96,000). The law applies to debts for which a court order for collection was issued and enforcement proceedings had commenced before Dec. 1, 2024. It also applies to the spouses of new recruits.
Russia has ramped up military recruitment by offering increasing financial incentives, in some cases several times the average salary, to those willing to fight in Ukraine.
The strategy has allowed the military to boost its ranks in the conflict zone while avoiding another mobilization order. A “partial mobilization” in September 2022 sparked an exodus of tens of thousands of Russian men, who fled the country to avoid enlistment.
The intense and drawn-out war has strained Russian resources. Putin in September called for the military to increase its troops by 180,000.
The U.S., South Korea and Ukraine say North Korea sent more than 10,000 troops to Russia in October, some of whom have recently begun engaging in combat on the front lines, piling more pressure on Ukraine’s also weary and overstretched army.
Experimental missile
The push for recruits coincides with the firing of a new intermediate-range ballistic missile at Ukraine on Thursday. Putin said it was in response to Kyiv’s use of American and British missiles capable of striking deeper into Russia.
On Sunday, Ukraine’s Security Service showed The Associated Press wreckage of the new experimental missile, which struck a factory in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro.
The fragments of the missile called Oreshnik —Russian for “hazel tree,” and which the Pentagon said is based on Russia’s RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile — have not been analyzed yet, according to security officials on site in an undisclosed location in Ukraine. The AP and other media were able to see the fragments before they were taken by investigators.
Charred, mangled wires and an ashy airframe the size of a large snow tire were all that remained of the weapon, which can carry either conventional or nuclear warheads.
“It should be noted that this is the first time that the remains of such a missile have been discovered on the territory of Ukraine,” said an expert with Ukraine’s Security Service.
