Moscow vows to give military recruits bonuses worth double Russia's average salary to serve in Ukraine invasion, boosting pay to £46,000 - as UK faces 'total war' warnings

Moscow's mayor has agreed to gift the city's residents double Russia's average national salary as a bonus for signing up for military service, in the latest sign of desperation in Vladimir Putin's brutal invasion of Ukraine. 

Mayor Sergei Sobyanin today signed a decree that stated Muscovites who agree to sign up to Putin's bloody war in Ukraine will get an extra 1.9million roubles (£16,760).

According to Statista, the average yearly salary for a Russian is about 880,000 roubles (£7,767). 

The new bonus will be added to existing salaries and benefits given to Russian soldiers, the mayor's office said - taking their total pay to 5.2million roubles (£46,000). 

Generous payments for volunteers have helped Russia avoid a new nationwide mobilisation after a troubled campaign in 2022 led to a mass exodus of people to neighbouring countries.

However, some economists say the payments create risky imbalances.

They argue that high wages for soldiers serving in Ukraine have become a benchmark for the rest of the economy, leading to a wage growth spiral across sectors as workers demand increases to bring their wages more into line with what the army pays.

Russian officials say about 190,000 people have so far volunteered this year to fight in Ukraine, in what Moscow describes as a 'special military operation'. That, they say, compares with 490,000 contracts signed in 2023.

The City of Moscow, where much of Russia's educated workforce is concentrated, has been seen as lagging behind many other regions in the number of volunteers joining the army as a percentage of the total population. 

There is no official data on the number of volunteers from Moscow but city officials put the total number of Muscovites fighting in Ukraine as of June 13 at 45,000.

The new bonuses come amid warnings from the Ukrainian ambassador to the UK that Britain may soon face 'total war' against Russia. 

Speaking in London, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi told the Land Warfare Conference that the West needed to 'wake up' and realise what was required. He added: 'Modern wars, unfortunately, are total. 

'They require not only army efforts, but the society in general.

'Therefore, society must agree to give up a number of freedoms for the sake of survival, while politicians can and should mobilise the nation.'

The UK's new defence chief, John Healey, said the Government was committed to investing 2.5 per cent of GDP in the military, but he gave no indication when Labour would meet that commitment.

There are not expected to be any significant decisions on spending until after a Strategic Defence Review, unveiled last week, has been completed.

Mr Healey also called on the Armed Forces to pull together, putting behind them decades of in-fighting over who gets the most money.

He said: 'The days when we could afford to dwell on inter-service rivalries are over. We must be fit to fight not fight among ourselves.'