Bashkortostan Officially Acknowledges Drop in Willingness to Fight for the First Time: Region Leads in Casualties with 11,990 Confirmed Names

The authorities of Bashkortostan have become the first among Russian regions to explicitly record in an official document a decline in the number of citizens willing to sign contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense. This was reported by RBC-Ukraine with reference to The Moscow Times. The reduction in interest in contract service is reflected in the explanatory note to the draft budget of the republic for 2027–2028, dated November 11, 2026. The document explicitly states that the reason for revising financial items was "a decrease in the number of citizens concluding a contract for military service." This is the first public admission at the regional budget level that the republic's mobilization resource is running out.

Budget Document: From 13.6 to 12.6 Billion Rubles

According to the explanatory note, funding for lump-sum payments for signing contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense is being reduced from 13.6 billion to 12.6 billion rubles. At the same time, the amount of the payment itself to recruits remains unchanged at 1 million rubles, which corresponds to the Russian average. Thus, the republic is not lowering the "price" of the contract, but merely budgeting a lower volume of expenses based on the actual drop in demand for contract service. The document is dated November 11, 2026, and is part of the planning materials for two years ahead, which means the authorities are factoring a steady decline into their financial model rather than a one-time failure.

First Place in Fatalities: 11,990 Confirmed Names

The context in which the admission about the drop in contract soldiers was voiced makes it particularly significant. Bashkortostan ranks first among all Russian regions in the number of confirmed fatalities in the war against Ukraine. According to the Mediazona project, by November 2026, the names of 11,990 residents of the republic who died at the front had been established. In July 2026, Bashkortostan became the first region where the number of confirmed deaths exceeded 10,000. For comparison, confirmed losses account for almost 0.3% of the republic's population—roughly the population of Moscow's Vostochny or Molzhaninovsky districts (13,000–15,000 people). In scale, Bashkortostan's losses are comparable to the official losses of the Soviet Union for the entire period of the 1979–1989 Afghanistan war, when 15,051 people died. The republic entered the top five regions with the highest number of deaths in early 2023, and by September 2024, it topped the list and has held the leading position ever since.

Financial Crisis: 17.1 Billion Ruble Deficit and Asset Sales

Parallel to its mobilization difficulties, Bashkortostan is experiencing an acute budget crisis. At the end of the first half of 2026, the republic's budget deficit reached 17.1 billion rubles—almost 71% of the planned annual deficit. One of the key reasons was a 38% drop in corporate income tax revenues. Due to a lack of funds, regional authorities are forced to save on street lighting, have cut payments to the relatives of fallen servicemen by 20 times, and are selling assets. In particular, the remaining stake in PJSC ANC Bashneft owned by the republic was transferred to Rosneft. In August 2026, the head of Bashkortostan, Radiy Khabirov, publicly confirmed the difficulty of the situation: "In conditions where there is not enough money, the natural process is to sell what is in ownership, since borrowing on the market is expensive," he stated.

Broader Context: Russian Losses and NATO Statements

The situation in Bashkortostan fits into a broader picture. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte recently stated that the losses of the Russian army in one month of the war against Ukraine are almost equal to US losses during 14 years of the Vietnam War. This indicates that the level of losses on the Russian side remains extremely high and systemic. Against this background, individual Russian regions are beginning to face the practical limit of their mobilization resource, which has been recorded for the first time in official budget documents. In addition, it became known that large Russian enterprises plan to independently fend off AFU attacks, which indirectly points to the overload of regular forces and the need to distribute tasks among all available structures.

Thus, the admission by the authorities of Bashkortostan about the decrease in the number of people willing to sign contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense is not just a statistical adjustment in a budget note. It is the first signal recorded at the level of regional financial planning that in the region with the highest confirmed losses in the country, the mobilization resource is effectively exhausted, and the budget model is forced to adapt to new realities.