For the protracted “military special operation” of Russia, the armed forces are dependent on fresh forces. “Volunteers” are advertised everywhere – it is not always without coercion.
Russian recruits attend a ceremony in Omsk, Siberia, before heading to the military units to which they are assigned.
He went for bread and didn’t come back. Stories like this have been the order of the day since the end of February in the “people’s republics” of Luhansk and Donetsk, which are only recognized by Russia. They deal with a special form of disappearance: the mobilization for the “people’s militia” of the areas of the Donbass that are actually under Moscow control. The authorities there are trying to recruit the able-bodied male population for military service. In recent weeks, the pressure is said to have increased according to reports from the region.
The convocation is involuntary. Men are also affected who are either doing work that is important for maintaining the economy and infrastructure or who are unable to work for medical reasons. Anyone who behaves carelessly will be drafted. Sometimes paying a bribe is enough to get away. In social networks reports and videos are circulating about mothers and wives protesting against the coercive measures.
It is clear to everyone that the “soldiers” recruited in this way are cannon fodder in the “special military operation,” as Russia’s war against Ukraine is officially called. The “people’s militias” are used in conjunction with the Russian army, also outside the Donbass, for example near Kharkiv. report to their relatives in an article by the online portal Medusa of inadequate equipment, lack of clothing and poor food supplies. Those who are wounded run the risk of being quickly sent back to the front lines.
The motivation is therefore low. Around 140,000 people have been conscripted in this way, according to human rights groups; one to two thirds of them were sent to the war front.
shying away from mobilization
The Russian campaign in the Ukraine has resulted in losses and is progressing slowly. There are no exact figures for the dead and wounded. But every day soldiers who died in Russia are buried, soldiers are taken prisoner or injured. Russian forces are constantly regrouping and need reinforcements. The Kremlin has so far refrained from partial or general mobilization for good reasons.
Such would be highly unpopular. Commentators rightly point out that the “sofa supporters” of the war would react very differently if their own son or brother were suddenly conscripted. The insistence that it was not a war but a “special operation” would also become obsolete. This distinction, which has little to do with reality, is also important for legal reasons: for example, in “peacetime” no number of victims has to be made public. Publicly admitting that this was indeed a war would shatter the semblance of normalcy in Russian society.
However, a “covert” mobilization has been taking place for weeks, even months. In the Donbass, which formally does not belong to Russia, it is constantly being expanded to include the newly conquered areas. Since early summer, rumors have been coming from all over Russia that the army is trying to recruit ex-soldiers who recently went into civilian life as specialists. They receive requests to report to the local military service. However, this does not represent an obligation. The successes are likely to be rather modest.
In order to fill up the ranks in the army, the state is therefore relying on various strategies.
Sub-republics form their own units
One non-voluntary source of new recruits is the regular call-up of recruits, which occurs twice a year and recently ended for this spring. In principle, every young man between the ages of 18 and 27 is required to do one year of military service. Medical reasons can be claimed for unfitness for work. Continued studies at a university result in deferment of compulsory service. Applications for community service, on the other hand, must be ethically justified and are often rejected.
Recruits may not be deployed in the combat zone. But since the beginning of the “special operation” there has been enough evidence that this is happening anyway. In addition, commanders try to urge recruits to switch to contract or contract soldier status after just three months. This offers material advantages for the military personnel and the army the opportunity to send it to the front.
The regime also has hopes for volunteers. Recruitment attempts are currently taking place in various ways. More and more ethnically defined Russian republics are setting up so-called “national battalions”. The model is Chechnya, whose leader Ramzan Kadyrov is one of the most active propagandists of the war. Many of these Russian constituent republics are economically weak; the prospect of a well-paid salary as a contract soldier in Ukraine is quite tempting for some young men.
Numerous governors of other Russian regions are also demonstrating their loyalty to the war and thus to the Kremlin by forming regional volunteer units. This is presented as a movement from below, which is helping the regional government to as the online magazine Wjorstka describes in a research. In Perm and Kirov, advertising for it suggests a connection to partisan and volunteer struggle in World War II. Men with no criminal record and experience in military service are recruited. These can commit for four months to a year; the salary promises are proud.
Russian recruits say goodbye to their families at the train station in Omsk as they head to military bases to complete their term of service.
Volunteers have little combat experience
However, the military expert Pavel Lusin has two things to consider in the article: On the one hand, the army has always been skeptical about units formed from “country teams”. An ethnic and regional mix is actually the goal in order to avoid horizontal fraternization. On the other hand, Lusin doubts the effectiveness of such voluntary organizations. These are not battle tested and have never practiced in conjunction with other branches of service. The primarily materially based motivation is likely to quickly give way to disillusionment in the combat zone – also because the wage promises often vanish into thin air and the war is waged with all severity.
A similar problem exists when recruiting on job exchanges on the Internet and trying to get the unemployed to work in Ukraine. Soldiers are wanted, but also certain professions, such as doctors. Not all tenders are officially related to the “special operation”. Some candidates may not realize what they were recruited for until later. However, they cannot be transferred to a war zone without their consent – precisely because there is officially no war at all.
Companies that are struggling because of the sanctions and are having to lay off staff are also good places to recruit volunteers. That Online magazine Wjorstka reported from the offer to employees of the Stary Oskol electrometallurgical combine in the Belgorod region bordering Ukraine to go to the «People’s Republics» as volunteers for a multiple of the salary. The magazine emphasizes that until then such attempts were only known from state-owned companies. The steelworks denied the representation.
Flowing transition between mercenary and army
Private actors are also looking for volunteers for the war. With advertising banners and a website, the Wagner group, which has been linked to the seedy gastronomic entrepreneur from President Putin’s circle, Yevgeny Prigozhin, wants to recruit new fighters for the Ukraine operation. Already before the war began according to research by Medusa another such paramilitary group, the privately-held organization Redut, is offering volunteers to fight in Ukraine. It is said to be under the control of the Ministry of Defense and its military intelligence agency, the GRU.
The connections between Redut and the army are apparently fluid: the report says that an engagement with the security company often turns into a contract with the regular armed forces without further inquiry. In some situations, the privately recruited fighters are said to have acted even more professionally than the regular troops. However, they are subordinate to the army, which is not without friction.
Offers to prisoners
As before, mercenary companies are actually forbidden in Russia. That doesn’t seem to bother anyone. Recent reports revolve around recruiters from the Wagner group appearing in penal colonies to find “volunteers” among convicts to serve in Ukraine. Aid organizations report such recruitments in penal colonies across the country. They often learn about this from relatives of prisoners who desperately try to stop their relatives from taking up the offer.
This sounds attractive to some: not only a high salary and a compensation payment for the surviving dependents are promised in the event of death. A subsequent release and deletion of the criminal record should also be part of the package. Nevertheless, the signing of the contract is often likely to take place under pressure; Penal colonies are closed systems in which psychological and physical violence is part of everyday life.
Considerations by the State Duma to legally regulate such “offers” to prisoners and thus make them the norm, so to speak, have been the subject of discussion on the Internet in recent weeks. All of these recruitment attempts show one thing above all: the urgency, need and helplessness of the authorities to find additional personnel for the campaign in the neighboring country.