Russia is running out of soldiers. That's why the Kremlin is trying every conceivable way to recruit new fighters for the war effort in Ukraine. We are looking for "real men up to 49". Money serves as a lure. Is that enough to replace the dead and wounded?
Ukraine reports more than 40,000 fallen Russian soldiers, the US secret service CIA speaks of 15,000 Russians killed in the war, in US government circles it is estimated that at least 75,000 Russian soldiers were killed or injured. The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. No one knows exactly how many Russians fell.
The fact is: the war is not a success for Moscow more than five months after it began. Nothing came of the plan to overrun Ukraine within a few days or hours. An early end of the war is still not in sight. And for Russia, the question now arises: Where are new, fresh soldiers coming from? Tens of thousands are dead or wounded, others tired and drained after months of fighting.
According to the Global Firepower Index, Russia has the second strongest military in the world. "The Russian army has a force of about 1.1 million, of which 450,000 are in the army. This is of course the largest branch of the Russian armed forces. And there are sources that say that up to 75 percent of the Russian field army is in Ukraine That would be an incredibly high value if it were to be correct," says Joachim Weber, security and Russia expert from the University of Bonn, in the ntv podcast "Learned again".
In order to increase the troop strength even further, a general mobilization would be needed. Then, in principle, every adult Russian could be drafted. Moscow, however, denies such plans. Russia's President Vladimir Putin would first have to put his country in an official state of war. However, the Kremlin still only speaks of a "military special operation". As long as martial law is not declared, Russia cannot call up its conscripts, Weber explains.
So far, Russia has refrained from general mobilization, instead relying on professional and temporary soldiers and mercenaries like the Wagner Group. The 85 federal subjects of Russia, that is the individual regions and major cities of Russia, are trying to set up volunteer battalions - by means of video messages, online job advertisements or simple advertising posters, the aim is to make military action palatable to volunteers. An appeal is made to patriotism, and a relatively large amount of money is used as a lure.
In the Yaroslavl region north of Moscow, for example, volunteers are being lured into military service with one-time payments of the equivalent of 2,000 euros and 600 euros a month. As soon as the recruits are deployed in the war zone, they receive 2,500 euros a month, reports the British think tank "Institute for the Study of War". The offer is aimed at 20 to 50 year olds. Dozens of residents of the region are said to have already joined the battalion. No wonder: the average monthly salary in Russia is only around 700 euros.
The city of Konakovo near Moscow is also trying to recruit volunteers with money. The city's military commissioner says in a video message that there is a payment of 3,400 to 6,800 euros for at least three months at the front.
The Perm region in the foothills of the Urals addresses "real men up to 49" on a recruiting poster and lures them with high pay, training and insurance. In addition, the volunteers are to receive "combat veteran" status, which promises their children preferential admission to universities, reports CNN. "We are looking for courageous, brave, self-confident, extraordinary and versatile patriots of our nation." A month of training is planned before going to war.
Two volunteer battalions have been set up in the autonomous republic of Mari El between the megacities of Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan, and a third is to follow. The only requirement: a high school diploma after the ninth grade. The soldiers are to receive the equivalent of 5,000 euros per month. If the soldier dies in the war, 84,000 euros would be paid to the family.
Ramzan Kadyrov, the ruler of Chechnya, plays a particularly important role in recruitment. Hardly any other regional president has as much power in Russia as "Putin's bloodhound." Kadyrov sees his army as "Putin's infantry troops." He not only recruits Chechens for the war in Ukraine, but men from all over Russia. Volunteers are recruited with the equivalent of up to 6,000 euros for three months - in addition to the 53 euros a day that the Russian Ministry of Defense pays. According to the New York Times, the training at the Russian University for Special Forces in Chechnya will only last a week. CNN reports up to 8,000 Chechens deployed in this war so far.
"The Russians are trying to maintain and stabilize their troop strength with the volunteer battalions. The people who fill the gaps have to come from somewhere. The easiest way is to find volunteers. And there are probably a whole range of people who the state Believe in propaganda and perhaps go to war out of a thirst for adventure, but above all for financial reasons," analyzes expert Weber in the podcast.
According to CNN, analysts assume that more than 30,000 Russians could be mobilized through the recruitment of volunteers. Most would then be sent to the Donbass, it is said.
In the occupied regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, Russia has so far waived bonuses for its soldiers. Instead, pro-Russian men between the ages of 18 and 65 are forcibly drafted. And because they are Ukrainian citizens, military observers say Russia is particularly careless with them. With little or no training and old weapons, they are said to be sent to the trenches.
There are also reports that the domestic secret service FSB and the Wagner mercenary group are recruiting prisoners in penal colonies for use in the war. The "volunteers" are lured with a lot of money and the possibility of subsequent release.
"There is a massive attempt to mobilize below the threshold of an official mobilization. We hear that they go into the prisons, offer people money and a release from prison. This is a recruitment strategy that evokes the darkest times of the Stalin era in World War II remembered," says Carlo Masala, military expert from the Bundeswehr University in Munich, in the Stern podcast "Ukraine - The Situation".
But professional soldiers cannot be easily replaced by prisoners or other volunteers, Kateryna Stepanenko is quoted as saying by CNN's "Institute for the Study of War". "The short-term training is unlikely to turn volunteers with no prior experience into effective soldiers."
In view of the Russian recruitment offensive, the New York Times writes of a "secret mobilization" that has been going on for a long time. According to Joachim Weber, however, this term is "not quite correct" since the voluntary nature is still maintained, at least in most cases. Except for the occupied territories. "Otherwise, in this huge country, all sorts of measures are used to get people to sign a contract and then, for example, take part in a 'special operation' for four or five months." With a few exceptions, Russia's recruitment policy has not yet reached the point "where people are being threatened and forced into military service," says Weber.
The massive recruitment of volunteers can compensate for the number of dead and wounded for a certain time, but does not increase the motivation in the troops, says Weber. High monetary payments are by no means a guarantee for high fighting morale. That differentiates the Russian from the Ukrainian troops, according to the security expert on "Learned something again."
The willingness of the volunteers is significantly greater on the Ukrainian side. They want to defend their own country against the Russians. "The morale in the Russian army will not be high, apart from chauvinist groups like Wagner, which consist of conviction criminals, ultimately professional killers. They don't need to motivate them, but that's a minority."
Security expert Weber describes most Russian soldiers as "more or less normal Russians who are led to believe otherwise." Most don't know what it means to "fight bitterly for every street and every house."
The situation could only change dramatically if Russia eventually calls for general mobilization. Then the equation would be "140 against 40 million inhabitants," says Joachim Weber. Then you could "throw soldiers to the front on a completely different scale," said the expert. The Ukrainians are already "one step further," Weber clarifies. "Right from the start they called up all able-bodied men up to the age of 60."
