- Will Vernon
- BBC journalist in Volosovo
Updated 1 hour
image source, Getty Images
The city of Volosovo, near St. Petersburg, is dominated by loudspeakers.
Like many Russian cities, Volosovo has loudspeakers installed on tall poles lining the main streets. They are traditionally used to broadcast music during national holidays. Now, however, they have a different purpose.
“Two volunteer artillery battalions are being formed. We invite you to join men ages 18 to 60‘ yelled the speakers.
It is a message that is repeated throughout this vast country. On social media, television and billboards, men are urged to sign short-term contracts with the army to fight in Ukraine.
I stop a man on the street in Volosovo and ask him if he supports the call for volunteers. “Yes! If I were young I would go, but I’m too old,” he says, clenching his fists. “We should bomb them!”
However, most people seem less enthusiastic. “[La guerra] it’s too painful to even talk about it,” says one woman. “Killing your brothers is wrong.”
I ask him what he would say if one of his relatives wanted to join. “Why go? Only their bodies will be returned.”
Given the significant losses of soldiers in the conflict, the Russian authorities have launched a recruiting campaign for the army.
image source, EPA
Putin wants more soldiers
This Thursday, the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, signed a decree that will allow the incorporation into the army of 137,000 more soldiers as of January 1, 2023.
However, it is not clear whether the number will increase by recruiting more volunteers or by expanding compulsory military service.
Currently, Russian men aged 18 to 27 are subject to conscription, although many can avoid or reduce the period of their service, usually one year, through medical exemptions or by enrolling in higher education.
Russia initially denied sending forcibly conscripted soldiers to Ukraine, but several officers were disciplined after cases of conscripts forced to sign contracts and, in some cases, imprisoned came to light.
Under Russian law, conscripts must undergo four months of training before being sent to war.
image source, Archyde.com
Recruitment videos urge young people to join the Russian military.
sign of despair
Russia does not publish figures, but Western officials say between 70,000 and 80,000 Russian soldiers have been killed or wounded since President Vladimir Putin’s government launched its invasion six months ago.
To attract new recruits, the authorities offer volunteers huge sums of money, land and even privileged places for their children in Russian schools.
Recruiters have even visited Russian prisons to sign up inmates, promising them freedom and money.
Investigative journalist Roman Dobrokhotov says the recruitment drive is a sign of desperation on the part of the authorities: “These are not the kind of soldiers needed for a victorious war. The Kremlin still hopes that quantity can beat quality. That they can take hundreds of thousands of desperate people with their debts and just throw them into the conflict zone.”
image source, Archyde.com
The authorities summon men between the ages of 18 to 60 to become soldiers in Ukraine.
Despite the staggering amounts of cash offered to potential recruits (up to $5,700 a month in some cases), Dobrokhotov says the reality is different.
“People don’t see this money” he says. “They’re coming back [de Ucrania] now and tell us journalists how they were deceived. This is also influencing the situation, this lack of trust in our government, so I don’t think this strategy will succeed.”
However, some are happy to join.
Nina Chubarina’s son, Yevgeny, left his village in northern Karelia to join a volunteer battalion. Nina says that her son, who had no military experience, was given a gun and sent directly to Ukraine.
He died a few days later. She was 24 years old.
Nina Chubarina says that she tried to prevent her son from fighting in the Ukraine.
The pain of relatives
Nina agrees to meet me in a park near Moscow, where she has found part-time work in a bread factory. She says that the monotonous task of packing bread takes her mind off the loss of her child.
He remembers begging her not to go to the Ukraine. “I tried to talk him out of it. I cried. I said, ‘There is a war, they will kill you!‘ He said, ‘Mom, everything will be fine.'”
Nina criticizes how the authorities recruit volunteers to fight in Ukraine.
“Simply they send them out like silly chicks! They had barely held a weapon before. They are cannon fodder. The generals think: ‘We have a volunteer: great, go ahead!'”
Not everyone is willing to enlist like Yevgeny.
Traveling through this country, one does not get the impression that the Russian people are totally behind the “special military operation”, as the Kremlin likes to call it.
Yevgeny Chubarin died within days of joining the Russian army to fight in the Ukraine.
The number of cars on Russian roads displaying the pro-war “Z” symbol is relatively low. Experts say that the number of volunteers who join is also.
Military analyst Pavel Luzin believes that people are not ready to sacrifice themselves for their president.
“The Kremlin’s problem is that the majority of Russians are not willing to die for Putin or for the restoration of the ‘great empire’. Conscription is not possible under the current circumstances because there is no civil consensus in Russia for war.
“Compare this to the Ukraine. Ukrainians are ready to fight“, he added.
Thankspara Alla Konstantinova de Mediazona.
Remember that you can receive notifications from BBC News Mundo. Download the new version of our app and activate it so you don’t miss out on our best content.