Russia struggles with recruitment
‘Volunteer’ groups, prisoners step in as soldiers stand down
As Russia continues to suffer losses in its invasion of Ukraine, now nearing its sixth month, the Kremlin has refused to announce a full-blown mobilization — a move that could be very unpopular for President Vladimir Putin. That has led instead to a covert recruitment effort that includes using prisoners to make up the manpower shortage.
This also is happening amid reports that hundreds of Russian soldiers are refusing to fight and trying to quit the military.
“We’re seeing a huge outflow of people who want to leave the war zone — those who have been serving for a long time and those who have signed a contract just recently,” said Alexei Tabalov, a lawyer who runs the Conscript’s School legal aid group.
The group has seen requests from men who want to terminate their contracts, “and I personally get the impression that everyone who can is ready to run away,” Tabalov said. “And the Defense Ministry is digging deep to find those it can persuade to serve.”
Although the Defense Ministry denies “mobilization activities” are taking place, authorities seem to be pulling out all the stops to bolster enlistment. Billboards and public transit ads in various regions proclaim, “This is The Job,” urging men to join the professional army. Authorities have set up mobile recruiting centers in some cities, including one
at the site of a half marathon in Siberia in May.
Regional administrations are forming “volunteer battalions” that are promoted on state television. The business daily Kommersant counted at least 40 such entities in 20 regions, with officials promising volunteers monthly salaries ranging from the equivalent of $2,150 to nearly $5,500, plus bonuses.
The AP saw thousands of openings on job search sites for military specialists.
The British military said this week that Russia had formed a major new ground force called the 3rd Army
Corps from “volunteer battalions,” seeking men up to age 50 and requiring only a middle-school education, while offering “lucrative cash bonuses” once they are deployed to Ukraine.
The recruitment of prisoners has been going on in recent weeks in as many as seven regions, said Vladimir Osechkin, founder of the Gulagu.net prisoner rights group, citing inmates and their relatives that his group had contacted.
It’s not the first time that authorities have used such a tactic, with the Soviet Union employing “prisoner battalions” during World War II.
Osechkin said it’s Russia’s shadowy private military force, the Wagner Group, that’s recruiting prisoners.
According to Osechkin, prisoners with military or law enforcement experience were initially offered to go to Ukraine, but that was extended to inmates with varying backgrounds. He estimated that as of late July, about 1,500 might have applied, lured by promises of big salaries and eventual pardons.
Now, he added, many of those volunteers — or their families — are contacting him and seeking to get out of their commitments, telling
him: “I really don’t want to go.”
Media reports about some troops refusing to fight in Ukraine started surfacing in the spring, but rights groups and lawyers only began talking about the number of refusals reaching the hundreds last month.
In mid-July, the Free Buryatia Foundation reported that about 150 men were able to terminate their contracts with the Defense Ministry and returned from Ukraine to Buryatia, a region in eastern Siberia.
But the parent of one officer who was detained after trying to get out of his contract told the AP this week that some are still being detained elsewhere in the region. The parent asked not to be identified out of safety concerns.
Tabalov said a serviceman can terminate his contract for a compelling reason — normally not difficult — although the decision is usually up to his commander. But he added: “In the conditions of hostilities, not a single commander would acknowledge anything like that, because where would they find people to fight?”
Meanwhile, representatives of 26 Western countries and the European Union meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, agreed Thursday to continue funding to help Ukraine’s military, saying $1.5 billion has been pledged so far and more is coming.
The money is for enhancing armaments production, including artillery and ammunition; developing and strengthening the training of Ukrainian soldiers and assisting Ukraine’s efforts to demine areas.
Ukraine also said Thursday that nine Russian warplanes were destroyed in explosions at an air base in Russian-controlled Crimea that appeared to be the result of a Ukrainian attack.
Russia denied any aircraft were damaged or that any attack took place. But satellite photos showed at least seven fighter planes at the base had been blown up and others probably damaged.
Late Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Moscow’s mounting losses should persuade its leadership to “find a way out of the war.”