Across Russia, volunteer battalions are being formed for the war in Ukraine, joining the so-called “special military operation” declared by President Vladimir Putin in February.
The call was sent with an appeal to both patriotism and Russian wallets. Relevant military experience is not always required. The message was spread from Murmansk in the Arctic Circle to Perm in the Urals and Primorsky Krai in the Russian Far East.
Altogether, analysts estimate that more than 30,000 volunteers could be mobilized to supplement Russian ranks exhausted by five months of fighting – between a quarter and a third of the force deployed to conquer the eastern region of Donbas, where most volunteers are likely to be. sent.
Last week, Richard Moore, head of MI6, the UK’s secret intelligence service, told CNN’s Jim Sciutto that “the Russians will find it increasingly difficult to provide manpower and material in the coming weeks.”
Putin has long resisted the idea of a general mobilization in Russia, and this spring’s call was similar to the one in 2021. These battalions are a way to increase Russia’s military strength without such a drastic measure. They also seem to be focusing on poorer, more isolated regions, using the lure of quick money.
What impact these battalions might have is an open question. Chechen volunteer units played a huge role in the Donbas campaign, especially in Mariupol. But they are relatively well equipped and have extensive military experience. Battalions gathered elsewhere clearly did not.
Kateryna Stepanenko, a Russian researcher at the Institute for the Study of War in Washington, says: “Some battalions will participate exclusively in combat support and combat support operations (such as logistics or signal battalions), while others will reinforce pre-existing military units. or form combat battalions.”
But she adds, “Short-term training is unlikely to turn volunteers with no prior experience into effective soldiers in any unit.”
CNN asked the Russian Defense Ministry for comments on the volunteer battalion program.
patriotism and money
Stepanenko says the process is being conducted from Moscow. “The Kremlin reportedly ordered all 85 Russian federal subjects (regions of the Russian Federation plus occupied Crimea and Sevastopol) to recruit volunteer battalions to avoid declaring partial or full mobilization in Russia.”
But regions are expected to help fund recruitment, which, she says, “puts a strong strain on regional budgets.” Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, for example, had to set aside about $2 million for the project, Stepanenko said.
The qualifications required for entry vary from place to place. An online brochure in Kazan, Tatarstan said: “We invite men under 49 years old who have previously served in the armed forces and offer a 4-month contract in their military specialization.”
Elsewhere, men up to the age of 60 without a criminal record are eligible. There is often no requirement for prior military experience listed in online notices.
The Perm post – under the headline “A job for real men” – seeks “courageous, daring, courageous, self-confident, extraordinary and complete patriots of our nation.”
According to the posts, about a month is allotted for training – not much for a situation where recruits have little or no military experience.
According to standard Russian Defense Ministry policy, all recruits who sign a contract must have four weeks of combined arms training. It is unclear whether this same regimen is being extended to all volunteers.
Some of the volunteer battalions have already passed through Mulino training camp near Nizhny Novgorod, according to social media posts.
Volunteer contracts are usually from four months to a year. They promise much higher salaries than the average in Russian regions. For example, the battalions being formed in Perm and Russia’s western Kirov region offer an income from 300,000 rubles a month (about US$5,000), while in Bashkortostan, near the Kazakhstan border, the minimum is 280,000 rubles. Bashkir volunteers from Bashkortostan are promised an additional 8,000 rubles a day for combat operations.
An advertisement circulating on social media channels in Bashkortostan read: “During the summer you can easily earn about a million rubles!”
The average monthly salary in these areas is between 30,000 and 45,000 rubles, about a tenth of what a volunteer can earn if he is seconded to the front lines.
There are other advantages too. In Perm and Kirov, children of volunteers are promised preferential admission to universities. Volunteers will receive “combat veteran” status, granting them a lifetime monthly stipend and discounts on housing and transportation.
And there is a scale of compensation for battlefield casualties, in some cases more than 3 million rubles for serious injuries. If a volunteer is killed, his family would receive 12.4 million rubles from the federal budget and 2 million from the region.
Some volunteers told the online publication Verstka that they are motivated by salaries, so that, for example, they can build a house. Others seem inspired by patriotism; some seem to simply want an adventure.
One of them, named Vitaly, told Verstka: “I respect the achievements of our ancestors and it is difficult for me to see them being spat upon. And, of course, there is the nice bonus in the form of payments that the government offers.”
Others told Verstka they were inspired to rid Ukraine of Nazism, an indication of the power of Russian state media, which relentlessly obstructed the notion that Russia’s action is to denazify Ukraine.
If all Russian regions generated a battalion, the cost would be considerable. Kateryna Stepanenko estimates that a 400-man unit would cost $1.2 million a month in salaries, which she says is expensive as the program will not produce elite units.
From the Arctic to Central Asia
Chechen volunteers were the first to enter Ukraine shortly after the invasion began. The Vostok Battalion saw action in Mariupol, where it was prominently involved in infantry operations. Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov often idolized the Vostok Battalion.
In late April, Kadyrov said on his Telegram channel that “hundreds of brave soldiers from different corners of our immense country have decided to join the Russian liberation army.”
And in May, he said that 200 “warriors of goodwill” were graduating from the Russian University of Special Forces in Gudermes and leaving for Ukraine every week.
By some estimates, around 8,000 Chechens went to fight in Ukraine. They were heavily involved in the campaigns to take Severodonetsk and Lysychansk.
Volunteers from Buryatia, in the Russian Far East, were also involved from the start; several were killed, including one known for fighting in Syria.
More recently, other Russian regions have stepped up. A prominent case is the Republic of Bashkortostan.
A retired naval officer, Alik Kamaletdinov, announced on social media that he was recruiting for a volunteer battalion because “Bashkiria has always been a pillar of our state in difficult times. … Let’s support our country and our President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin not with words but with deeds!”
The governor of Bashkortostan, Radiy Habirov, posted on Telegram last week: “Today we are firing the second Bashkir battalion to the Donbas.”
“So more than 800 volunteers, all children of Bashkortostan, will defend our country and brother Donbass.”
Other regions that have begun to raise volunteer battalions include Chelyabinsk in the Urals and Primorsky in the Russian Far East. Photos of nearly 300 volunteers from Chelyabinsk were posted last week.
The head of the recruitment office in Tatarstan, Evgeniy Tokmakov, told a news conference that “battalions must be formed only by natives of Tatarstan, so that they can join the ranks, stand shoulder to shoulder, get to know each other.”
Several units of Cossack fighters are also being formed – not surprising given that they were prominently involved in eastern Ukraine in 2014. The Orenburg region has already sent three Cossack battalions into the war.
The pace of recruitment is increasing – in recent days, the regions of Murmansk in the Arctic Circle and Tyumen in Western Siberia have announced the formation of volunteer units.
‘A crowd with rifles’
It is still unclear how these battalions – most are smaller than a normal battalion – will be integrated into the Russian operation. The Tatar and Bashkir units will be transformed into battalions of motorized marines.
The volunteer battalion created in Primorsky Krai will be made up only of local residents and will support the 155th Marine Guards Brigade, according to regional officials.
There are signs that the shortage of Russian labor in Ukraine is starting to take a toll. Ukraine’s Center for Combating Disinformation says it has found jobs for more than 20,000 Russian military personnel employed at regional employment centers.
There were persistent reports that some battalion tactical groups had to be reconstituted. But, as one analyst put it, a battalion is more than “a crowd with rifles”.
Stepanenko of the Institute for the Study of War said that “these poorly trained recruits are likely to be used as cannon fodder given the earlier Russian treatment of recruits and proxy units”.
It’s hard to imagine how these disparate groups with no battlespace knowledge and rusty or non-existent military skills will influence conflict. The infantry’s task among Russian forces has largely been to occupy places already destroyed by indirect fire.
Even so, said Stepanenko, the Russians are “continuing to suffer heavy losses without gaining much ground. Therefore, they require a constant flow of Russian labor to make up for their losses.”
The Ukrainian military is tracking the formation of units. Vadym Skibitskyi, a spokesman for the Chief Intelligence Directorate, said Russia plans to form 16 new battalions by the end of July.
He told online portal Krym.Reali that “according to our estimates, there will be around 4,000 people in each region, including Crimea.” Skibitskyi confirmed to CNN that his comments were accurately reported, but declined to provide further details. Stepanenko believes the ultimate goal is a form of stealth mobilization.
“Putin appears to have no confidence that the polls and protests in support of the war will survive a general recruitment effort. Recruitment to volunteer battalions or covert mobilization affects only a small percentage of military personnel and their families,” Stepanenko said.
“Such a separation allows Putin to control the emergence of the invasion without disturbing the majority of the Russian male population and their families.”
Source: CNN Brasil
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