Media: A new scheme for recruiting mercenaries for the war with Ukraine has appeared in the Russian Federation. How it works

A new scheme for recruiting mercenaries for the war with Ukraine has been launched in Russia — the "Dobrokor" recruitment system. More than 1 600 online forms have already been completed.

This is stated in the investigation of the Systema project, which is part of the publication Nastoyaschee Vremia.

The name "Dobrokor" is an abbreviation of the "Volunteer Corps" of the Russian Ministry of Defense. It was created in 2023 on the basis of the so-called PMC "Redut", and it united dozens of mercenary units that were recruited according to the system of this private military company. As the publications Systema and Schemes found out in a joint investigation, the curator and financial center of both "Redut" and the "Volunteer Corps" is the Russian GRU.

The “Dobrokor” website lists 27 units that are recruiting under the new scheme. The most famous of them are the “Wolves”, “Tiger”, and “Rys”, which are connected to the 16th GRU brigade, the Orthodox-patriotic “Nevsky” unit, the Veterans assault brigade (fighters wear chevrons with Putinʼs image), the Española fan group, the Don Cossack detachment, and the St. George brigade, created under the auspices of the Donbas Volunteer Union. All of them were previously part of the “Redut” PMC.

Units of the Volunteer Corps fought in almost all directions of the front — Kharkiv, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson. They also participated in battles in the Kursk region.

How the system works

Potential mercenaries in Russia now have a choice: to sign a volunteer contract under the old “Redut” PMC system or under the new one through “Dobrokor”. Recruiters explain that volunteers who join the ranks through “Dobrokor” receive official military status along with social guarantees and benefits. In the case of “Redut” PMC, however, there is no legal status, nor access to medical care or rehabilitation hospitals.

The “Redut” scheme allows the contract to be terminated at any time, but does not provide any social guarantees. In contrast, “Dobrokor” promises the official status of a military serviceman, access to social benefits and regional payments. However, the contract under this system cannot be terminated early. In addition, payments are not always received — because of this, some mercenaries fundamentally choose the old recruitment scheme.

Mercenaries recruited under the “Dobrokor” scheme sign a contract through the military registration and enlistment office — this is officially formalized as joining a volunteer formation. Such a contract cannot be terminated early without consequences. Recruiters directly warn: it will be difficult to escape, and an attempt to do so may lead to problems. In Russia, desertion is a criminal offense.

The “Dobrokor” system promises a one-time regional payment — from $6.3 thousand to $20.4 thousand. But these amounts are lower than those received by contract soldiers of the Ministry of Defense, where a one-time payment can reach $46 thousand. The “Dobrokor” recruitment announcements do not specify that these payments are often provided only for those who have signed a contract for at least a year. In some regions, volunteers are not paid at all — recruiters say to clarify this at local military registration and enlistment offices.

There are three ways to recruit to “Dobrokor”. The first option is to personally come to temporarily occupied Luhansk and register at the corps, which is based near the city administration.

The second is to contact the military registration and enlistment office at your place of residence and submit an application, but before that, you must receive a referral from the military unit to which the unit belongs.

The third way is online registration: those interested can fill out a volunteer application and send documents via the website or Telegram. From February to July 2025, the file was downloaded more than 1 600 times. The media notes: it is obvious that not everyone who downloaded the application eventually went to serve. Also, some units simply publish recruitersʼ contacts on their social networks — potential mercenaries communicate with them directly.

The Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitrii Medvedev stated on July 1, 2025, that more than 18 000 people have joined the ranks of volunteer formations since the beginning of the year.

"But, despite this figure, ʼDobrokorʼ recruiters are actively clinging to anyone who agrees to become ʼexpendable material,ʼ" the material says.

Volunteers in the Russian army are perceived as less valuable “reserve infantry”. Generals compare them to landsknechts, poor mercenaries from the Middle Ages. According to MP Borodai, the main role of volunteers is to distract attention and exhaust the enemy’s forces while the regular army prepares for an offensive. He stated bluntly that volunteers are simply “living force that is being spent”.

• Volunteer units allow the Russian army to recruit those who do not want to sign a standard contract with the Ministry of Defense. But the main form of replenishment of the army remains contract service: it provides higher payments, official status and social guarantees, but requires mandatory participation in the war until its end.
• According to Dmitrii Medvedev, in the first half of 2025 alone, more than 210 thousand people signed a contract with the army. This is close to the estimates of the German think tank SWP, which calls the figure of 190 thousand.