Russian recruits offered £530 for every kilometre they advance

Russian recruits are being offered a $650 (£530) bonus for every kilometer they advance in a spring promotion the Kremlin hopes will help it avoid another round of mobilization.

Advertisements offering a range of benefits to recruits have appeared on government websites and on the social media accounts of state institutions and organizations, including libraries and high schools.

One of them, sent by a local government in the western Yaroslavl region, promised a one-time bonus of about $3,800 (£3,100) for signing up. If the recruits were sent to Ukraine, the ad promised a monthly salary of up to $2,500, plus about $100 a day for “participation in active offensive operations” and $650 “for every kilometer of progress within.” Attack Teams”.

The Kremlin desperately needs new recruits for its deadlocked war in Ukraine, but it also wants to avoid another unpopular round of mobilizations. His “partial mobilization” in September caused tens of thousands of men to flee the country.

Instead, the government hopes to encourage men to volunteer. Recruiters are reportedly cold-calling eligible men to encourage them to enroll, advertisements and billboards have been put up promising attractive benefits, and recruitment agencies are working with universities and social services to attract students and the unemployed.

Russian media reports that men across the country are receiving summonses from draft offices. In most cases men were simply asked to update their records; in others they were ordered to attend military training.

But in the Vologda region, about 250 miles north of Moscow, men who went to the recruiting office after receiving a summons were reportedly forced to sign papers preventing them from leaving the region.

Go by the Forest, a group that helps men avoid mobilizations, said inquiries from men about how to deal with subpoenas or drafting officers have increased from dozens a day to 100 a day in recent months.

It is feared that further mobilization will take place if the government cannot persuade enough men to volunteer.

The current recruiting campaign is similar to the one conducted last summer before the September conscription, said Kateryna Stepanenko, a Russia analyst at the Institute of the Study of War.

She doubted if it would be successful.

“They have already recruited a significant portion of the people who have been funded [to volunteer]… And they struggled with that last year,” Ms. Stepanenko said.