By Andrew Osborne
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s military has launched a video campaign to lure more professional soldiers to fight in Ukraine challenging those interested in showing they are “real men” and trading what it views as boring civilian life for the battlefields.
The advert, set to evocative music, follows reports from British military intelligence and Russian media reports suggesting Moscow is seeking to recruit up to 400,000 professional soldiers – on a voluntary basis – to bolster its forces in Ukraine.
The advert has so far been released on major Russian social networking sites.
Russia, which says it is prosecuting what it calls a “special military operation”, did not disclose full casualty figures. But up to 43,000 Russians have died in the war so far, according to a recently leaked estimate from the US Defense Intelligence Agency.
It is estimated that up to 17,500 Ukrainians also died.
The ad, which invites men to sign contracts with Russia’s Defense Ministry for wages starting at 204,000 rubles ($2,495) per month, shows a man in a supermarket in military uniform holding a heavy machine gun. He is then shown in a security guard’s uniform with a question:
“Is this the kind of defender you dreamed of?”
Later in the video, a man walks through the fog with other soldiers in what appears to be a battlefield. He is later shown as a gym instructor helping clients lift weights.
“Is this really where your strength lies?” asks the video, before cutting to a taxi driver picking up client fare who then turns into a soldier on the battlefield.
“You are a real man. Be a real man,” the ad says.
After launching a partial mobilization drive in September that prompted tens of thousands of Russian men to flee the country to avoid military service, authorities are playing down the possibility of calling for a second mobilization – despite moves to introduce electronic summons to pressure. on draft dodgers – and seek to recruit volunteers instead.
Posters seeking professional soldiers have appeared in the Russian capital in recent weeks declaring that “Our profession is to defend the Fatherland.”
The posters, which said the army was looking for gunners, minesweepers, military medics, tank drivers and commanders, promised the would-be recruits “respect, an honorable profession and a decent salary”.
($1 = 81.7500 rubles)
(Reporting by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Raissa Kasolowsky)
