Russian recruiters are promising non-combat jobs. But they’re offering only standard military contracts — and one ad used a wounded soldier’s photo.
Recruiters in Russia are luring potential enlistees with promises they will not see combat — but the document they are asked to sign is a standard military contract.
In August, the project Idite Lesom (“Get Lost”) flagged an ad from the organization Zashchitnik.rf promising some kind of “alternative service.” The outlet Vot Tak published photos of the ads in the Moscow metro.
Other organizations that broker contracts with Russia’s Defense Ministry are running similar ads for army service without combat participation.
The Telegram channel Post- found that one of these organizations, Zashchitniki-rodiny.rf, illustrated an ad reading “Cooks needed for rear-echelon units (not assault!)” with a photo of a serviceman who was drafted during mobilization, sent to the front and wounded.
The man in the photo is 26-year-old Danil Astakhov, from Krasnoyarsk Krai. The image was taken in 2020 at the “Field Kitchen” competition during the International Army Games in the Zabaykalye region, while Astakhov was doing his mandatory military service. He took first place in one category.
Astakhov, a pastry chef by trade, was mobilized in 2022 and assigned to an air assault brigade. He did not take part in assaults himself, according to Post-, but served in a zone of active combat. He was wounded at some point — the outlet did not specify when or how — and returned to civilian life for a while before heading back to the front in early 2026.
“These ads are a scam. People go to the local draft office to be “SVO” rear-support personnel, but they end up in assaults. All the rear-support slots have long since been filled and paid for, so no one gets bumped from them,” Astakhov said. Once he is back from the front, he plans to track down whoever created the ad and find out why they used his photo without permission.
In June, recruiters from the organization Rodina Geroev used an image of the late opposition politician Alexey Navalny in social media ads for contract military service. The posts were taken down after journalists flagged them.
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