Desperate Vladimir Putin goes to extraordinary lengths to replace slaughtered soldiers | World | News
A desperate Vladimir Putin is offering sign up bonuses of as much as £38,000 as the Russian army continues to struggle to replace dead soldiers. In a country, where average monthly earnings sit at around £745 a month, the sum highlights the desperation amongst Kremlin officials waging a war of attrition.
The Russian army has lost men at a phenomenal rate throughout the war, with current casualty rates of around 1,000 a day. The UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) has assessed that Russia has likely sustained approximately 1,140,000 casualties, both killed and wounded, since the full-scale invasion in 2022. This year alone, it is believed that the country has seen nearly 400,000 killed or wounded as the war approaches its fourth anniversary.
The high casualty rates have seen military chiefs pull every lever possible to fill the ranks, with prisoners released in order to fight and rules around HIV and other illnesses relaxed in order to bolster the military.
Former CIA Director David Petraeus told POLITICO “assuming that Putin is able to continue to fund the enormous enlistment bonuses (and death payments, too) and to find the manpower currently enticed to serve,” Russia “can sustain the kind of costly, grinding campaign that has characterized the fighting in Ukraine since the last major achievements on either side in the second year of the war.”
It is not only huge bonuses that are enticing civilians into the military, but a burgeoning defence industry which has seen the development of military headhunters, tasked with delivering men to the frontline in exchange for commission.
Recruiters, who once placed IT candidates and accountants in new roles, now deliver men for slaughter in the name of Russia and Putin.
One Russian named Olga, who used to run a recruitment firm with her husband before the war, told POLITICO how the business has pivoted to delivering riflemen, drone operators and mortarmen.
She said: “Our daughter saw a job ad on Avito looking for recruiters, and that’s how it all started.”
The couple recruit through Telegram with a team of 10, who place around 40 ads per day sourcing potential soldiers from a range of society.
While they refused to state how much they earn in commission for every soldier delivered, estimates range from £1,000 to £2,900.
