For several weeks now, according to the Russian-language service of the BBC, more and more vacancies have been popping up for jobs in the armed forces, mainly for short-term contracts. At the Russian employment agency HeadHunter, there were 3,000 military vacancies in one month, three times as many as in the whole of 2019. At another office, Superjob, the BBC even counted 18 thousand such advertisements in one week.
The flood of vacancies indicates that the Russian Defense Ministry is having a hard time finding enough troops to relieve the military in Ukraine and compensate for the losses among Russian troops.
It is also striking that the job advertisements ask for people with specific military skills, such as artillerymen, tank drivers or radio operators. Normally, these are recruited through the armed forces’ own recruitment offices. It also mainly concerns contracts of three, six or twelve months, instead of the usual two to five years.
‘Behind the ribbon’
The urgency is evident from the fact that BBC employees who responded to the advertisements were told they could stop by immediately for an interview. Candidates who are willing to operate ‘behind the ribbon’ (the Ukrainian border) can start working within a few weeks.
The monthly salary for contractnik amounts, depending on their specialism, from 350 to 600 euros. But candidates willing to join the “military operation” in Ukraine can count on double that, plus extra fees. Russian soldiers who fought in Ukraine will later also be able to claim free medical care and help finding a home.
This is an appealing prospect, especially for ex-servicemen from remote areas in Russia where there are hardly any jobs. But it seems that reports of heavy casualties among Russian troops in Ukraine have made many Russians timid, though the Kremlin is anxiously trying to keep it a secret.
According to US defense expert Michael Kofman, the biggest problem is political in nature. Because President Putin insists that this is not a war but a ‘special military operation’, the Ministry of Defense is not allowed to deploy conscripted soldiers in Ukraine.
Politically sensitive
According to Kofman, Putin should actually declare a mobilization to solve the shortage of troops, but in doing so he would recognize that this is indeed a war, which is considerably more difficult than the Kremlin wants to admit. It would also be very sensitive politically. Putin has always promised that no conscript soldiers – a new batch of 135,000 were called up at the beginning of this month – will be sent to Ukraine.
In order to avoid this, conscripted soldiers are pressured in all sorts of ways to act as… contract to sign up. Anyone who signs a contract for two years will immediately be free of his year of military service, they are promised. As a bait, one interested person was also told that by enlisting for service in Ukraine, he might be able to participate “in the Red Square Victory Parade.”