TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Advertisements promise cash bonuses and enticing benefits. Recruiters make cold calls to qualified men. Enlistment offices work with universities and social service agencies to attract students and the unemployed.
A new campaign was launched this spring across Russia, seeking recruits to replenish its troops for the war in Ukraine.
Meanwhile fighting continues on Ukrainian battlefields such as Bakhmut and both sides prepare for counteroffensives that will cost more lives, the Kremlin’s war machine needs new recruits.
A mobilization in September of 300,000 reserves – billed as a “partial” call-up – sent panic across the country, as most men under 65 were formally part of the reserve. Tens of thousands fled Russia instead of reporting to recruiting stations.
The Kremlin has denied that another call-up is planned for what it calls a “special military operation” in Ukraine, now more than a year old.
But amid widespread uncertainty over whether such a move will happen, the government is urging men to volunteer, either at makeshift recruiting centers that have popped up in various regions, or with phone calls from enlistment officers. That way, it can “avoid declaring a formal second mobilization wave” after the first has proven unpopular.according to a recent report by the US-based think tank the Institute of the Study of War.
A Muscovite told The Associated Press that his employer, a state-funded organization, collected the military registration cards of all male employees of fighting age and said they would get those delay. But he said the move still sent a wave of fear through him.
“It makes you nervous and scared – nobody wants to suddenly end up in a war with a rifle in their hands,” said the resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared retaliation. “The special operation is quite ongoing, so any surprises from the Russian authorities can be expected.”
It’s been more than a week since he gave his card, he said, and exceptions are usually resolved in a day or two, adding to his anxiety.
Russian media reported that men across the country received summonses from enlistment offices. In most cases, men are simply asked to update their records; in others, they were ordered to participate in military training.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said last week that serving summonses to update records at enlistment offices was a “standard practice” and an “ongoing task.”
Other unconfirmed media reports say authorities have told regional governments to recruit a certain number of volunteers. Some officials announced the establishment of recruitment centers with the goal of getting men to sign contracts that would enable them to be sent to war as professional soldiers.
Ads appear on government websites and on the social media accounts of state institutions and organizations, including libraries and high schools.
One of them, posted in a municipal administration in the western region of Yaroslavl, promised a one-time bonus of about $3,800 to sign up, and if sent to Ukraine, a monthly salary of up to $2,500, plus $100 a day for “participation. in active offensive operations,” and $650 “for every kilometer advanced within the attack groups.”
The ad said the soldier would also get tax and loan repayment breaks, preferential university admission status for his children, generous compensation for his family if he was wounded or killed in action, and the war veteran status, with more benefits.
In the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, officials asked universities, colleges and vocational schools to advertise for recruits on their websites, said Sergei Chernyshov, founder of a private vocational school there.
Chernyshov posted the ad on his social media account “to let everyone know what our city hall is planning,” but he told the AP he had no plans to put it on the school’s website. It was “weird” to target vocational school students, he said.
Other efforts include enlistment officers meeting with college students and unemployed men, or calling men to volunteer.
A Muscovite who spoke on condition of anonymity for his own safety said he received such a call and was surprised at how polite it was: “After I said ‘No,’ there were no threats or (attempts) to convince me — (just) ‘Thank you, goodbye.’”
There have been isolated cases of enlistment officers forcing men to enlist, said Grigory Sverdlin, founder of a group called Go by the Forest that helps men avoid mobilization.
The group receives up to 100 messages a day from men seeking advice on dealing with summonses or enlistment officers, he said, compared to dozens a day in recent months. . In most cases, officials want to update their records with addresses and phone numbers, and they may try to recruit men during the process.
But Sverdlin said some cases stand out.
In the Vologda region, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of Moscow, the group received messages saying that almost everyone who went to the enlistment office after receiving a call “was forced to sign a paper which prohibits them from leaving the region,” he said. .
Lawyer Alexei Tabalov, who runs the Conscript’s School legal aid group, believes there is nothing unusual about the authorities issuing summonses today. Some of the notices are traditionally served before Russia’s spring conscription draft, which is scheduled to begin on April 1 for those eligible for mandatory service.
All Russian men between the ages of 18 and 27 must serve a year in the military, but a large portion avoid the draft for health reasons or get student deferments. The share of draft-evading men is particularly large in Moscow and other large cities, and many evade the enlistment officers who bring conscription calls.
Tabalov said the men reported going to the enlistment offices to update their records but that there were officers there “messing around and promoting the idea of signing the contract, talking about how one loves their homeland and defend it.”
He doubted anything would make volunteering attractive after 13 months of a war that had killed and wounded tens of thousands.
“People now understand what it means to sign a contract,” he said. “Those who have been burned once are unlikely to fall into the same trap.”
Tabalov said his group continues to receive messages from soldiers who want to terminate their contracts, but this will not be legally possible until President Vladimir Putin ends the partial mobilization, which began in September, with a new order.
“Going out of the war automatically means criminal prosecution,” Tabalov said, adding that there have been several criminal cases since December, with prosecutions of soldiers who deserted or went AWOL.
News outlet Mediazona counted 247 verdicts in 536 criminal cases in this and similar cases, adding that more than a third of those convicted received suspended sentences, allowing those authority to send them back to the front line.
The current recruitment campaign is similar to the one implemented last summer, before the September call-up, said Kateryna Stepanenko, a Russia analyst at the Institute of the Study of War.
In the past, the authorities also used financial incentives, and formed various volunteer battalions, but the effort was clearly unsuccessful, as Putin eventually returned to partial mobilization.
It is not clear whether it will succeed or not.
“They already got a significant part of people who were financially incentivized last summer. And they struggled to do it last year,” said Stepanenko.
The current recruitment effort demonstrates the military’s awareness of Ukraine’s manpower needs.
“What the campaign to mobilize 300,000 soldiers tells us is that it is not enough to form an adequate strike group for Russia to continue its offensive operations,” he said.
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Associated Press writer Yuras Karmanau contributed to this report.
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