Russia offers recruits £500 for every 1km they advance

RUSSIAN recruits are being offered a $650 (£500) bonus for every kilometre of ground they gain in Ukraine as part of a spring recruitment drive that aims to avoid another round of mobilisation.

Adverts offering recruits an array of benefits have appeared on government websites and on the social media accounts of state institutions such as libraries and high schools.

One of them, posted by a council in the Yaroslavl region, promised a onetime bonus of about £3,100 to sign up.

If the recruits were sent to Ukraine, the ad promised a monthly salary of up to £2,000, plus about £80 a day for “involvement in active offensive operations,” and £530 “for each kilometre of advancement within assault teams”.

The Kremlin is in need of recruits for its stalled war in Ukraine but is keen to avoid a draft, as its “partial mobilisation” last September proved unpopular and resulted in tens of thousands of men fleeing the country.

Instead, the government is hoping to entice men to volunteer and recruiters are reportedly cold-calling eligible people to encourage them to sign up.

Enlistment offices are working with universities and social service agencies to lure students and the unemployed to sign up for the armed forces.

The current recruitment campaign is similar to one put into action last summer, before the September call-up, said Kateryna Stepanenko, a Russia analyst with the Institute of the Study of War.

She questioned whether it would be successful. “They’ve already recruited a significant portion of people that were financially incentivised [to volunteer]... And they struggled to do so last year,” she said.