Tailor-made salaries, credits and positions: Ukrainian army brigades compete to recruit soldiers

Last Tuesday, four soldiers walked around the kyiv Sports Palace with folders in their hands. It was a recruiting patrol, one of the most unpopular jobs in Ukraine. Its function is to identify men who have not complied with the obligation to register at the city's military offices or who have ignored the army's call to join the ranks. In front of the Sports Palace there is a huge screen that projects advertising. One of the ads featured images of soldiers interspersed with written slogans and a telephone number: “Fight and don't flee, join the 5th Separate Assault Brigade.”

kyiv, like the rest of Ukraine, is filled with advertisements aimed at adults over 18 years of age willing to enlist. Each brigade, even the battalions of these brigades, can hire soldiers autonomously. EL PAÍS found posters on public roads from eight different military units in a two-hour tour of the Pechersk district, in the center of the capital. The messages coincide in showing the emblem of the unit, a QR code to consult service offers or a telephone number to request information “anonymously”, as the Jartia Brigade of the National Guard emphasizes in its advertisements, to assure Citizens who avoid the draft law will not be reported.

A recruitment poster on a street in Kiev.Cristian Segura

Advertising of this type has existed since the beginning of the invasion, in February 2022, but the amount has skyrocketed coinciding with increasing pressure from recruiting offices. The army urgently needs up to 500,000 new soldiers, former commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Valerii Zaluzhni said last January. Rotating troops is essential after more than two years of conflict - almost 900,000 people have served in the country's defense - and the Ukrainian Parliament is finalizing a new law that will toughen methods to accelerate mobilization. The logic behind the advertising of these military units is that if you volunteer, you have more options to choose where you will serve and in what capacity. “Being a volunteer means being free because you choose your destiny, it is an honor and you do not wait for the State to decide for you,” says the Achilles battalion, of the 92nd Assault Brigade.

The Government insists on this to convince recruits: the sooner a person presents himself to his responsibility to the country, the more options he has to choose the functions he will perform. Dozens of battalions in need of replacements are competing to attract new personnel in positions that can be gunner, mechanic, drone operator, sapper, cook, doctor or telecommunications expert. The units with better weapons and preparation highlight this condition in their offers, guaranteeing two months of training, in some cases in NATO countries. It is not a minor issue, there have been multiple criticisms during the war about the poor training with which, in some cases, soldiers are sent to the front. “The safety of our people is the priority,” reports the Da Vinci Wolves Battalion, a famous unit of the 67th Mechanized Brigade. “None of our soldiers enter service until he is 100% prepared for his role. “Everyone goes through training recognized by the best instructors, also foreign, from leading armies.”

Da Vinci's Wolves also highlight that they have attractive social benefits packages: “Salary, vacations, health insurance, etc. In addition, each combatant receives the necessary equipment.” There are repeated widespread complaints that the troops, regardless of the unit, do not have enough rest permits and that much of their material must be paid for out of their own pockets.

Social benefits

Lobby X is an online platform for job offers in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Its advertising campaign is the most prominent currently in the country and in its database there are hundreds of specific positions of brigades, special forces and state security forces. The classified ads are precise in the requirements and advantages of each position. Salaries range between 500 and 3,200 euros per month, depending on the complexity of the work - the best salaries are in the special forces - and, above all, the location: the closer to the front, the more money. The benefits, beyond salary, also make a difference. The 128th Mountain Assault Brigade offers a State loan for the purchase of housing for military personnel. An advertisement from this brigade to fill the position of firefighter includes medical insurance, annual financing for rehabilitation programs in case of being injured, training in Ukraine and abroad, in addition to providing all the necessary material for its functions.

Military recruitment advertising is based on optimistic marketing. The reason for this is that the vast majority of civilians do not want to join the ranks. Hundreds of thousands of men are hiding from the legal obligation to report to army offices. On March 12, a revealing figure was known, provided by the Center for Economic Strategy: the number of Ukrainian men abroad has doubled and if in November 2022 adult men represented 17% of refugees, now they are the 35%. The majority have allegedly left the country illegally.

The problem is that the Ukrainians do not see that the war can be won, nor that the conflict will end in years. “Why is it so difficult to convince civilians to be mobilized?” Mikola Bielieskov, an analyst at the National Institute for Strategic Studies (an organization dependent on the Ukrainian presidency), asked rhetorically on March 22 at the Kiev Security Forum. . His response was pessimistic: “Because they see that there are no resources to fight, and if there is no desire to fight, there will be fewer supplies [of weapons and aid from Ukraine's allies].”

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