Other positions listed on help-wanted websites include antiaircraft gunner - requirements: “to perfectly know your weapon and own it” and driver -responsibilities: “ensures the efficient and safe operation of the equipment entrusted to him when transporting unit personnel and logistical equipment as required in everyday life and in battle.”Īnother, posted without a date on the site SuperJob, is for a more senior position: “commander of a military unit.” Starting salary: 200,000 rubles ($3,400). It makes no specific mention of the war in Ukraine. Armed with a grenade launcher, a stock of rocket-propelled grenades, and grenades with shaped charges, he fires at land and sea targets and enemy armored vehicles, and suppresses firing points.”Īmong the benefits listed: room and board, medical insurance, clothing allowance, a pension after 20 years of service, and other items.

“He plays an important role in strengthening the firepower of the squad. “The grenade launcher is part of the motorized rifle squad,” the job description reads. (about $2,550, well above the median national salary of the equivalent of $950) One, posted on the jobs site Head Hunter on May 24, was titled “Contract Soldier,” with a published salary starting at 150,000 rubles a month before taxes. The positions are for jobs in Russia’s regular armed forces.

To replenish its depleted manpower in Ukraine, Russia has resorted to what some observers have called a “stealth mobilization.” The effort includes a formal recruitment page posted on the Defense Ministry’s website.īut it also includes help-wanted ads posted on major job recruiter websites, as well as social media networks, such as VKontakte. Russia’s tempo of losses – of both men and equipment and weaponry - is not sustainable, many Western experts say, but the Kremlin has resisted calling for a general mobilization. Reliable estimates are hard to come by, but Western officials say killed-in-action numbers likely exceed 20,000. Russia, meanwhile, is doing everything in its power to hide its losses. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here. RFE/RL's Live Briefinggives you all of the latest developments on Russia's ongoing invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, Russian protests, and the plight of civilians.

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