Desperate for recruits, Russia launches ‘stealth mobilization’

Four Russian veterans of the war in Ukraine recently posted short videos online complaining about what they called them mistreatment after returning to the Russian region of Chechnya after six weeks on the battlefield.

One said so He was denied a promised payment of nearly $ 2,000.

Another complained that a local hospital refused to remove the splinters lodged in his body.

Their public calls for help have gotten results, but not the kind they expected.

Instead, an aide to Ramzan Kadyrov, the autocrat who rules Chechnya, has long warned them on television as ungrateful and forced them to retract.

“They paid me much more than promisedsaid Nikolai Lipa, the young Russian who claimed he was betrayed.

Usually these kinds of complaints could be ignored, but the quick reprimand underlines how Russian officials want to eliminate any criticism of military service in Ukraine.

They desperately need more soldiersand they are already using what some analysts call “invisible mobilization” to bring in new recruits without resorting to politically risky internal recruitment.

To make up for the labor shortage, the Kremlin relies on a combination of impoverished ethnic minoritiesUkrainians from separatist territories, mercenaries and militarized units of the National Guard to fight the war, and promises strong cash incentives for volunteers.

“Russia has a problem with recruiting and mobilization,” said Kamil Galeev, an independent Russian analyst and former colleague at the Wilson Center in Washington.

“It is basically desperate to get more men to use any means possible.”

The number of deaths and injuries on the battlefield is a closely guarded secret on both sides.

The British military recently estimated the number of Russians killed 25,000with other tens of thousands of woundedon an invasion force of 300,000, including support units.

However, the president Vladimir Putin it hindered the mobilization effort from the start, experts said, refusing to put Russia on a war footing that would have allowed the military to start calling for reserves.

Therefore, the Kremlin tried join the replacement battalions By other means.

Avoiding compulsory military service for all adult men allows the Kremlin to keep the fiction that the war is a limited “special military operation”, minimizing the risk of the kind of public reaction that led to the end of previous Russian military debacles, such as the one in Afghanistan and the first Chechen war.

The public outcry after Chechnya led Russia to ban the use on the battlefield of rough conscripts, men between the ages of 18 and 27 who must complete one year of compulsory military service.

The revelations that hundreds have been deployed however in Ukraine, including some of the sailors who died when the Ukrainians sank the Moskva, the flagship of the Black Sea fleet, caused the parental indignation that the Kremlin had tried to prevent.

Many analysts have raised doubts about how long Russia will be able to sustain its offensive in Ukraine without a general mobilization.

Igor Girkin, a military analyst and frequent critic of Ukraine’s strategy, said it was impossible for Russia to conquer the entire country without one.

But the Kremlin seems determined to avoid taking such a drastic step.

Instead, recruiting offices have resorted to repeatedly calling reservists to offer cash incentives for short deployments.

The online search ads posted by the Ministry of Defense regional recruiting offices are also overflowing with thousands of ads for people with military specialties.

Recent listings on global job sites like Head Hunter included seeking units combat engineersanyone who can fire a grenade launcher and even the commander of a paratrooper squad.

Salaries offered to some volunteers, which can range from $ 2,000 to $ 6,000 per monthit far exceeds the average monthly salary in Russia, which is around $ 700.

Prewar contracts for privateers were sometimes as insignificant as about $ 200 a month.

Enthusiasm for war inspires some volunteers, experts say, while workers in industrial regions affected by factory closures due to sanctions may find attractive money.

“Mostly, of course, it’s a way to make money,” said Sergei Krivenko, director of the Russian human rights organization Citizen Army Law.

Many, especially older volunteers, are in substantial debt, he and others said.

A law in May removed the 40-year age limit hired soldiers.

Such piecemeal efforts support the war but fail to address the fundamental labor shortage, analysts said.

While Ukraine faces similar problems, what it lacks in professional soldiers it makes up for with enthusiastic volunteers, they said.

Russian online ads avoid mentioning Ukraine, and short-term deals, often three months, are meant to minimize the risk of never returning home.

“It may be necessary to put them in the army and, when they are already in the army, find out to doGaleev said.

The high death toll among soldiers in poorer republics populated by ethnic minorities, such as Dagestan in the Caucasus and Buryatia in southern Siberia, indicates that they occupy the top ranks in disproportionate numbers.

Statistics, compiled by MediaZona, an independent media, from public sources, show 225 deaths in Dagestan in June, along with 185 in Buryatia, compared to nine in Moscow and 30 in St. Petersburg.

Minority recruits, in particular, are under pressure to sign contracts.

“They are told that if they go back to their hometown, they won’t find work, so it’s best to stay in the army to earn money,” said Vladimir Budaev, a spokesman for the Free Buryatia Foundation, a pacifist group.

The units of Rosgvardia, the militarized national guard, have been deployed in Ukraine and apparently have sufficient numbers for rotations.

But there don’t seem to be enough regular soldiers for rotations. A group of about 15 Buriate women recently posted a video online complaining that their male relatives and friends had been kept unlicensed since January.

In 2013, Kadyrov, the strongman in power in Chechnya, founded a private training institute now called the Russian Special Forces University.

Given his role in helping defeat the Chechen separatists, Kadyrov has long been given greater freedom than any other regional leader to deploy his own gunmen.

Since the war, he has used his entertainment center as a vehicle for recruiting not only Chechens, but men from all over Russia.

News has also emerged from Chechnya that war critics or men have been arrested minor offenses they are often beaten and then forced to sign a contract fight in Ukraine or pay a bribe.

Kadyrov has promised to pay nearly $ 6,000 to volunteers who sign a three-month contract, complementing the $ 53 per day pledged by the Russian Defense Ministry.

Kadyrov’s aide, Mogamed Daudov, while berating the four men who produced the video complaining about their treatment, said they were the only four to express dissatisfaction with what he said was more than 3,200 volunteers deployed to Ukraine from Chechnya.

Other volunteers who appeared on Chechen television praised the shooting practice, urban warfare and other techniques.

However, according to all reports, the training takes approx a weekwhich analysts consider woefully inadequate.

A longstanding taboo is set aside in the search for soldiers.

Authorities in Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia have announced that they will form regiments composed entirely of men from the region, apparently hoping that local nationalism will inspire more volunteers.

The military has avoided such recruitment since the time of the tsars out of fear foment separatist movements.

In the battle for Lugansk and Donetsk, in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, the Russian military got rid of such subtleties as cash bonuses.

Conscription is mandatory for men aged 18 to 65 in Russian-controlled areas, and front-line fighters are mainly local recruits.

Because they are Ukrainian citizens, the thousands of deaths and injuries have little impact on Russia, which is why the Kremlin is particularly dismissive of its victims, experts say.

Some were seized from the streets and sent to the trenches with little or no training and old weapons, military analysts and relatives said.

“And he colonial model of the locals used as cannon fodder, ”Galeev said.

The Ombudsman of the Donetsk People’s Republic, a small pseudo-state created by Russia, wrote on his Telegram channel in early June that 2,061 of his men had been killed and 8,509 wounded out of a force of 20,000 at the start of the war. . invasion, an impressive percentage.

Risky technical battlefield operations are often assigned to experienced mercenaries under contract with Wagner or similar private commercial operations, analysts said.

Wagner rose to prominence when the organization was deployed to help implement Russian foreign policy goals in Syria and various African nations.

He also reportedly sought out willing recruits.

In St. Petersburg, Wagner convinced many dozens of prisoners to sign six-month contracts to fight in exchange for about $ 4,000 and an amnesty if they returned alive, according to the independent release Important Stories.

Armies in many countries facing similar manpower shortages and other problems may have collapsed, said Johan Norberg, one of the authors of a recent war report entitled “A Rude Awakening,” from the Swedish Research Agency.

“The groups are unlikely to contribute to a decisive Russian victory,” he said, referring to the recruits.

“But they can help maintain Russia’s current positions and possibly allow for some small tactical gains, for example, in the Donbas.”

Oleg Matsnev contributed to the research.

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