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Desperate for new army recruits, Russian authorities resort to planting drugs and posting fake job ads

Source: Holod

As Russia presses forward with its offensive in Ukraine, mounting casualties on the battlefield have forced the Defense Ministry to intensify recruitment efforts. Alongside raising sign-on bonuses for new contract soldiers, officials are using increasingly aggressive tactics, including manipulation and coercion: intimidating 18-year-old conscripts, posting fake job ads, and pressuring people under criminal investigation to sign contracts. The independent outlet Holod spoke with human rights advocates to uncover the extreme lengths the Russian authorities are going to replenish the army’s ranks. Meduza shares a summary of their main findings.

Over nearly three years of war, at least 77,000 Russian soldiers have died fighting in Ukraine, based on a list of confirmed casualties compiled by Mediazona and the BBC. Meduza’s analysis of inheritance case data suggests the true number could exceed 120,000. The number of wounded may be up to three times higher, taking an additional 360,000 soldiers off the battlefield. Even these figures likely understate the scale of Russia’s losses, given the government’s continued secrecy around casualty data.

To sustain their offensive in Ukraine, Russian officials have had to aggressively and continuously recruit more troops. According to Western intelligence agencies, by spring 2024, Russia was losing up to 1,000 soldiers per day, or roughly 30,000 per month. U.S. officials believe Russia is enlisting between 25,000 and 30,000 contract soldiers monthly to offset these losses.

Ruslan Leviev, founder of the independent investigative group Conflict Intelligence Team, thinks these figures are accurate. He points to Russia’s rapid advances on the battlefield as indirect proof of the recruitment rate. “Maybe it’s 25,000, maybe it’s 35,000,” Leviev said, adding that it’s difficult to give a precise estimate but “the tempo is undeniably high.”

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Still, as the war grinds on, recruiting new volunteers has become increasingly difficult. Ivan Chuvilyaev of Get Lost, an organization assisting Russian deserters, noted that voluntary sign-ups had nearly dried up by late 2023. Sergey Krivenko, head of the human rights group Citizen. Army. Law., echoed this, saying that recent mobilization efforts revealed how few Russians are willing to volunteer.

The recruitment struggle is evident in the ever-increasing sign-on bonuses offered by both federal and regional authorities. But even more concerning are reports of heavy-handed recruitment tactics, including manipulation and psychological and administrative pressure.

Before 2023, recruitment efforts were less aggressive, Chuvilyaev explained, as Wagner Group mercenaries were filling the front lines by recruiting prisoners. But after Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin’s ill-fated mutiny and subsequent fall from grace (and later, the sky), the Defense Ministry ramped up its efforts with underhanded tactics like fake job ads and police coercion. Chuvilyaev warns that these methods are likely to become even more sophisticated as the war continues, with the ministry constantly evolving its strategies to meet recruitment demands.

Bait-and-switch

When one St. Petersburg man who’d applied for an engineering job googled the address for his interview, he discovered it was a military base. This is a common tactic, says Ivan Chuvilyaev from Get Lost. Had the man gone to the interview, recruiters would’ve assured him that the job involved only drone production and had nothing to do with combat. But if he signed any paperwork, he’d have been deployed straight to the front.

“I trusted them,” said another man, who’d been promised a civilian construction job by local authorities. When he arrived for the interview, he was met by a military official who insisted he’d be working on infrastructure projects, with no risk of deployment. “And I fell for it,” he said, explaining how the official seemed credible and rushed him to sign before the end of the workday. It wasn’t until he was taken to a military training ground that he realized he’d been tricked into combat service.

Recruitment has grown more subversive as the conflict drags on, said Sergey Krivenko from Citizen. Army. Law. Krivenko described cases where company employees were asked to sign military contracts supposedly just to show their bosses, with assurances that they could be annulled later. In reality, however, contracts with the Defense Ministry are essentially indefinite — and the signatories have no say over where or how they serve. Most end up as front-line fighters, regardless of what they were promised.

Former prisoners are also being targeted. Fyodor Sorokin (name changed) told Holod that after serving time for drug possession, he received a WhatsApp message notifying him of new charges. He was instructed to turn himself in to the police, but the address led to a military enlistment office. Sorokin ignored the summons, but the authorities tracked him down and arrested him. “They gave me a choice: ‘Either you sign the contract now, or a bag of drugs will end up in your pocket,’” Sorokin said. He signed.

Regional employment centers are also involved in illegal recruitment practices. Krivenko recounted how a man in Novosibirsk, registered as unemployed, was offered a job as an infantryman. He emphasized that these centers have no legal authority to direct people to enlistment offices, and those who receive such referrals aren’t obligated to report. Additionally, Krivenko noted that many recruits, misled and manipulated, would’ve never signed up if they’d known they’d be sent straight to the front lines.

False promises

Before 2023, Wagner Group largely handled the recruitment of prisoners for the war effort. Later, the Defense Ministry took over. In spring 2024, a new law expanded eligibility, allowing individuals charged with crimes to enlist, suspending their trials, and lifting pre-trial restrictions if they signed a military contract. In October, this was broadened to include defendants whose trials were already underway, meaning accused individuals could be sent directly to the front from pre-trial detention or house arrest.

Ivan Chuvilyaev described the scale of this system: “When I speak with deserters who are former prisoners, I always ask how many people from their correctional facility were sent to the front. They tell me it was anywhere from 50 to 75, and such groups are leaving almost every prison regularly.” Now, he said, recruitment has even extended to those merely under investigation — potentially affecting anyone, even someone arrested over a planted packet of drugs.

Many recruits are verbally promised freedom after a year of service, Chuvilyaev said, and reassured that prosecutors will push for their cases to be dropped in exchange for fighting on the front lines. Legally, however, expunging a criminal record remains extremely difficult and requires meeting strict criteria. And leaving military service is nearly impossible, even for those with severe injuries.

‘They threatened him’

To fill the army’s ranks, the Russian authorities have been pressuring conscripts to sign up for contract service during their 12-month mandatory military duty. Human rights advocates report that conscripts are told contract service is more lucrative, promised non-combat roles, or warned that mobilization is inevitable, so they might as well sign up now and earn money. Some are assured that contracts can be short-term or that signing will allow them to stay at their current unit. Those who refuse, however, are often threatened with deployment to combat zones — despite official claims that non-mobilized conscripts only serve “outside the conflict zone.”

In some cases, conscripts have been threatened with criminal charges if they don’t sign. Lacking legal knowledge and cut off from their families, many are vulnerable to these tactics. One mother told “Citizen. Army. Rights” that her son called her in tears, saying he never planned to volunteer. “They threatened him with five to seven years in prison if he didn’t sign,” she said. “Now, they’re saying he’ll take the oath immediately, head to a training ground, and be sent to an assault unit in three months.”

In early November, three conscripts from Russia’s Chelyabinsk region reported being intimidated a month into their mandatory service. Their parents recounted how they were threatened with deployment to Belgorod and warned it would be a death sentence. One mother said the young men were told they’d come back in “body bags” if they didn’t sign, and were subjected to graphic descriptions of how their mothers would see them “torn apart and dismembered.”

Human rights advocates say these coercive tactics are now widespread. Previously, conscripts needed to complete higher education or serve at least three months before signing contracts. Since spring 2023, however, even recent high school graduates can be recruited immediately. Promises of easier service or specific assignments rarely hold up — once a contract is signed, recruits are considered volunteers for the duration of the war and can be sent anywhere, including the front lines.