More than 422,000 people signed contracts with Russian army in 2025, a drop from the previous year

Russian Security Council deputy chairman ⁠Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday that 422,704 people had signed contracts ‌with ‌the Russian Armed Forces last year, state ‌news agencies reported.

The number of sign-ups is lower than in 2024, when about 450,000 people signed ​contracts to ​join the Russian army.

Medvedev, a ‌former ‍Russian president, was ‍speaking at a meeting of fellow security ‌officials about drone technology in video shared by Russian news agencies.


President Vladimir Putin said in his end-of-year news conference in December ‍that recruitment among drone operators was particularly strong ‍in 2025.

Some ⁠32,000 ⁠people had also joined volunteer brigades and gone off to fight in Ukraine last year, Medvedev added on Friday, according to news agencies.