Russian President Putin is trying by all means to increase his troops. After recruiting campaigns in prisons, he is now looking for new ways to recruit soldiers.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is apparently launching a new attempt to recruit additional soldiers for his war of aggression once morest Ukraine. Recruitment is said to be on a voluntary basis – but in questionable locations, according to an update from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
Accordingly, a Moscow psychiatrist is currently calling on men who are at risk of suicide to report for military service. It wouldn’t be the first time that Putin has recruited military volunteers from among the mentally ill. According to media reports, a psychiatric clinic in Saint Petersburg last year called on its patients to join volunteer battalions.
Russian region recruits orphans
On Monday, the Russian Far East region of Amur addressed orphaned young people: Anyone who took part in the war would be given an apartment, they said. “Among the orphans, priority is currently being given to those people who are or have been participating in the special military operation,” said the region’s social affairs minister, Natalia Kiselyova, according to a press release from the region’s administration. Read more regarding it here.
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According to the ISW, calls to join the units of the Wagner mercenary group are now increasing, especially in ultra-nationalist social networks in Russia. In the past, the head of the Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, is said to have recruited his fighters in prisons. Here you can read more regarding it.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials are reporting cases in which Russian occupation officials registered teenage boys born in 2006 for military service in the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk.
Recruitment campaigns on Telegram and in mobile tents
According to reports from the Ukrainian General Staff, the military recruitment centers in the occupied Donetsk region are once more receiving instructions to check the identity documents of reserve officers under the age of 65 and soldiers, non-commissioned officers and sergeants under the age of 50.
In several Russian Telegram channels, the ISW also observes how often it is advertised to join existing volunteer battalions. In addition, Russian officials have set up mobile recruitment centers in some places to promote volunteer military service.
Parallels to summer 2022
In measures like these, the ISW sees clear parallels to recruitment campaigns that were already aimed at volunteers between the end of May 2022 and September 2022. Here, too, there were mobile recruitment centers and recruitment calls via Telegram.
At that time, however, the campaigns were largely unsuccessful. As a result, Putin ordered the first partial mobilization throughout Russia in September 2022 – this also affected reservists who did not want to volunteer.
worry regarding stability
According to the ISW, the renewed appeal by volunteers now indicates that the Kremlin does not have enough reserves left to continue its offensive following the Battle of Bakhmut. In the city in eastern Ukraine, Russian Wagner mercenaries and the Ukrainian military have been fighting a bitter battle for months; a victory there is an important symbol for both sides. Read more regarding the latest military developments at the front here.
Putin, on the other hand, wants to avoid forced conscription because he is concerned regarding the stability of his regime. The partial mobilization in the fall had already led to resistance from the Russian population. According to the ISW, Putin therefore hopes that the recruitment of volunteers will be sufficient.
However, citing Russian veterans and military bloggers, the ISW states that Russia cannot achieve its goals without large-scale mobilization. It is therefore assumed that the Kremlin will not start another wave of mobilization until summer 2023 at the earliest.