Vladimir Putin has reportedly been forced to increase the financial incentives offered to Russians to tempt them to join the army as troops are slaughtered in Ukraine.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported in its daily roundup of the conflict on January 4 that the Russian government continues to increase financial incentives in order to boost the recruitment of military personnel.

In December, figures were posted online which suggested that, in November, the average one-time payment for new soldiers reached 2.47million rubles.

On December 27, experts said that Russian federal subjects are continuing to increase the value of enlistment bonuses to incentivise military recruitment.

Later, on December 29, it was reported that Putin was said to be continuing to face labour shortages, which Russian military recruitment and persistent demographic problems are "likely exacerbating".

On December 17, the ISW said: "The Kremlin will likely continue to avoid reporting on the deployment of North Korean forces in Kursk Oblast as doing so would tacitly acknowledge that Russia needs foreign troops to recapture its own territory and invalidate Russian President Vladimir Putin's claims that the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk Oblast resulted in high Russian recruitment rates."

It comes as Russia continues to lose troops on the battlefield.

At the end of the year, it was reported that Russian forces' rate of advance largely stalled around the few more urban settlements that Putin's troops sought to take in 2024.

The army expended roughly four months in seizing Avdiivka in late 2023 and early 2024, the ISW says, and two months each on efforts to seize and envelop Selydove and Kurakhove in 2024.

Experts added that Russian forces also incurred significant personnel losses during efforts to take these settlements, and Ukrainian officials have recently estimated that Putin lost nearly 3,000 personnel in the Pokrovsk direction in two weeks in mid-December.