Putin signs law allowing some Russian recruits to write off bad debts worth up to nearly $100,000 as combat casualties mount in Ukraine

• Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law on Saturday on debt forgiveness for certain recruits.

• It allows for up to $96,000 in debt forgiveness for those who sign a minimum one-year contract to fight in Ukraine.

• It is happening amid sky-high Russian combat losses.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law allowing debt forgiveness for certain troops who report to fight in Ukraine.

Putin signed legislation on Saturday that, starting Dec. 1, allows recruits who sign a minimum one-year contract to fight in the war forgiving up to 10 million rubles in debt arrears (about $96,000), Russian news agency Interfax reported.

The legislation applies where debt collection proceedings were initiated before 1 December 2024, the report states.

The Russian State Duma approved the bill earlier this week.

The new law, which also covers spouses of recruits, comes amid rising Russian combat casualties in Ukraine.

Reacting to the news on XCarl Bildt, chairman of the European Council on Foreign Relations and a former prime minister of Sweden, said the move showed that Russia’s attempts to rebuild its losses were apparently becoming “more and more difficult.”

“In addition to a large lump sum on offer, there is now also debt relief not only for those who sign up, but also for their families. That’s telling,” he wrote.

As Bildt alluded to, this would not be the first time Russia has tried to use economic incentives to increase troop numbers.

In July, Russia began offering bonuses of $22,000 for military recruits in Moscow.

Britain’s defense chief, Tony Radakin, said earlier this month that Russia had suffered a daily average of more than 1,500 killed or wounded troops in October, its month of conflict so far.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said in late October that Russian forces had suffered more than 600,000 wounded or killed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

In a post on X Saturday, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry shared figures from the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces that put Russian combat casualties since the start of the war at more than 729,000.

Russian forces were somewhat strengthened by the arrival of thousands of North Koreans troops in October.

The latest legislation follows President Joe Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to attack Russia with long-range missiles from the United States.

The major US political shift comes as Biden struggles to give Ukraine increased support ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration in January.

Ukraine also reportedly fired British-made long-range Storm Shadow missiles at targets inside Russia for the first time this week.

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