The Search for New Recruits In a Large Body-Count Conflict

"The body is turning into a public good [in Russia]."

A woman's body is a producer of children, and a man's body is the ability to pull the trigger."

Andrew Makarychev, professor University of Tartu, Estonia 

Russian soldiers during a rehearsal for the Victory Day parade . Photo: Valya Egorshin/AFP

 

In Russia recently the government doubled sign-up bonuses for contract military personnel. Social media and city streets are covered with recruitment advertisements. A new law makes official what Moscow had already countenanced; allowing criminal suspects to avoid trial should they enlist. They can join those already in prison who had been promised commuting of sentences if they agree to join the military in Ukraine.

A child crawls as she plays on the paving stones of Red Square in central Moscow, in front of St. Basil's Cathedral. (Alexander Nemenov/AFP via Getty Images)

 

Russia's Vladimir Putin decreed that a national priority is the increase of births among the population. A new bill was introduced to outlaw advocacy for a lifestyle unencumbered by offspring. These campaigns form part of the  Kremlin's efforts to enlist Russians in the country's campaign to prevail over the West. In the short term, the army requires more soldiers, in reflection of the 1,000 daily casualties in its Ukraine war of attrition.

Russia needs more people to give support to an increasingly isolated economy, to reduce reliance on immigration, and provide the recruitment pool for future wars. Russia's military was mandated by Mr. Putin to a 180,000 increase in service members to 1.5 million serving in the military. An ambition which would give Russia the second-largest military in the world after China's.

"It is necessary to take care of the population, to increase the fertility rate. To make it fashionable to have many children, as it used to be in Russia in the past -- seven, nine, ten people in families", said Mr. Putin, waxing nostalgic. Of course he is also nostalgic about Russia's past glories and revels in the thought of a return to the USSR, with himself as the new Stalin.

To boost the population of a nation where the fertility rate has diminished over the years, and continues to be far lower than replacement deems ideal at a time when childbirth is at its lowest in a quarter century, declining by 1.8 million since 2020, women giving birth to their first child can expect a gift of $6,700. Lawmakers a month ago introduced a bill to "prohibit the propaganda of the conscious refusal to have children" bolstered by fines up to $50,000.

Ukraine does it differently. Military recruitment officers now raid restaurants, bars and a concert hall in Kyiv to check military registration documents, detaining men not in compliance. Kyiv's Palace of Sports following a concert spawned video footage aired on media outlets showing officers stationed outside the concert hall doors to intercept men as they exit. The video shows that some men were forcibly detained by officers.

 

Moment Ukrainian men yell 'get away from me' as they are dragged out of nightclubs and restaurants by army recruiters during targeted raids

 

Upscale shopping centre Goodwine, and Avalon, a popular restaurant received similar attention. These raids reflect Ukraine's desperate requirement for fresh recruits in a nation where all men 25 to 60 are eligible for conscription and men between 18 and 60 are not permitted to flee the country. Laws in April lowered the draft-eligible age for men from 27 to 25, with some draft exemptions done away with. Across other Ukrainian cities raids were conducted in clubs and restaurants; Kharkiv and Dnipro included.

Men eligible for military service since spring must input information into an online system; failure to do so has consequences in penalties. In the meantime, a Russian-controlled oil terminal in the partly-occupied Luhansk region that provides fuel for Russia's war machinery was struck by the Ukraine military. According to Russia's Defence Ministry, 47 Ukrainian drones were intercepted and destroyed by its air defence systems Saturday. The Ukrainian air force for its part, announced air defences shot down 24 of 28 drones launched against Ukraine overnight.

A woman walks next to a house heavily damaged by a Russian airstrike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on Saturday. (Reuters)