Officers in the Russian city of St. Petersburg try to convince homeless Russians to fight in Ukraine. Russia would lose more and more soldiers and also struggles with a shortage of volunteers in the army, the British newspaper ‘The Telegraph’ reported. A spokesman for the Russian homeless charity Nochlezhka claims officers have already visited several shelters to recruit people.
According to the organization, officers visited a reception center on August 17, among other things. Tatyana Bazhenova, a spokesperson for Nochlezhka, told the Ukrainian Bugama news agency that they were trying to hand out leaflets about the military service and speak with some homeless people, whereupon the person in charge of the center ordered them to ask permission from the manager first. . Eventually the officers gave up and left.
Bazhenova emphasizes that shelters cannot help with military recruitment. “We have always kept our distance from religion and politics,” the woman said.
Later, the officers reportedly contacted the charity via email to provide more information about the distribution of the military service leaflets. The local news service ‘Rotunda’ said via Telegram that the city council of St. Petersburg also confirmed that some officers had tried “on their own initiative” to recruit homeless people.
Acute shortage of volunteers
Russia is currently facing a shortage of military volunteers. For example, the Kremlin previously ordered regions in the country to form a “volunteer army”. Those volunteers can then be deployed in the war and have to replace the fallen soldiers. Due to the very slow turnout, the age limit has even been raised from 19 to 59 years, or at least for people with military experience. Moscow also offers monthly wages of at least 3,000 euros.
In late August, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he would bolster his army with 137,000 new soldiers, up to 1.15 million active soldiers. Experts, on the other hand, doubt that Moscow will be able to recruit that many people. A US official claimed earlier this week that there is a possibility that Russia will even hire convicted criminals due to the acute shortage, or force wounded soldiers back into battle. Since Putin refuses to call his “special operation” in Ukraine a war, he can only send volunteers – not conscripts – to the front.
Moscow has not updated the death toll from the war since late March. According to Russia, there were 1,351 deaths at the time, although other estimates suggest a much higher number. Ukraine claimed on Friday that a total of 49,000 Russian soldiers have already been killed, but that information has not been verified.
Also read:
Putin’s army expansion won’t help Russia much, US and British officials say
Putin to children on first day of school: “Don’t go for your ambitions, but for service”
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