War of Aggression Against Ukraine: Covert Recruitment in Russia

So far, the Russian leadership has refrained from general mobilization and is relying on covert mobilization. Apparently, recruiting is done through the Wagner group and also in prisons. Right-wing extremists are also fighting.

The Russian war of aggression in Ukraine results in enormous losses for the armed forces of both sides. In order not to lose in this war of attrition, they need tens of thousands of soldiers. Since the Russian leadership has so far refrained from general mobilization for domestic political reasons, a covert mobilization is being carried out by recruiting contract soldiers, who are lured with higher than usual pay or who are forced to do so.

Telegram news channels from Russian regions such as Bashkortostan, Tatarstan and cities such as Perm and Chelyabinsk have reported on the formation of “volunteer battalions” sent to Ukraine. The Internet portal “Meduza” also reports on a regiment in Moscow whose members, according to a recruiter, are to receive their salary from the Moscow city budget.

Wagner Group at the forefront

“Meduza” reports in the same article that the Russian Defense Ministry has taken control of the networks of the private military company Gruppe Wagner and is using its reputation for recruitment. However, the requirements have been reduced. Not even drug tests would be carried out before duty.

Relatives of inmates from several prison camps also reported recruitment campaigns. The Russian human rights organization gulagu.net named penal colonies in or near St. Petersburg, Tver, Ryazan, Smolensk, Rostov, Voronezh and Lipetsk, where the Wagner group is said to be looking for inmates with combat experience for operations in Ukraine. In Adygia, 300 men were accepted into the military.

The Russian military is currently using fighters from the Wagner Group to reinforce and compensate for losses on the front line, British military intelligence also reported: Wagner very likely played a central role in the capture of the cities of Popasna and Lysychansk and suffered heavy losses. Apparently, it only became involved in the fighting after the Russian armed forces were defeated at the beginning of the war of aggression.

Close connection to state military structures

According to “Meduza”, the Wagner Group is dependent on the regular military and the military intelligence service GRU for equipment and infrastructure. Its origin goes back to the Russian General Staff. He commissioned the businessman Yevgeny Prigoschin to build up the troops with the income from orders for the food supply of the Russian armed forces. Prigozhin has meanwhile been awarded the title of “Hero of the Russian Federation”.

The latter, in turn, applied for criminal proceedings against two “Meduza” employees for disinformation after he had received questions about Wagner’s involvement in the war in Ukraine.

Extreme right-wing militias involved

The Wagner Group was already active in eastern Ukraine in 2014. There are indications of links to other groups active in Donbass and also in Syria at the time. This includes the “Russitsch” militia, which is known for its particular cruelty and openly appears with neo-Nazi symbols.

The Russian citizen Jan P. identified himself as one of its members. There are numerous traces of him on the Internet. According to the well-known Russian news platform fontanka.ru, he attended a funeral for a fallen comrade in St. Petersburg in mid-June. He gave a eulogy surrounded by uniformed members of the Donbass Volunteers Union. Fontanka.ru quoted Jan P.: They had crossed the border together since February 24 and started “freeing our Russian territories from the invaders”. The dead man died as a “true warrior with weapons in hand”. Warriors like him destroyed the enemy “by tearing them to pieces”.

According to various media reports, Jan P. fought in Donbass as early as 2014. He is therefore on the wanted list of the Ukrainian military prosecutor’s office. The Norwegian broadcaster NRK followed his path: He came to Norway in 2004 as a teenager and attracted attention through connections in the right-wing extremist scene in the city of Tønsberg. He went on patrol with a controversial “civilian protection group” called “Odin’s Soldiers”. He was deported from Norway in 2016 and the authorities classified him as a threat to national security. According to posts on Telegram, he is now the leader of Russich, although the information cannot be independently verified.

Training center in St. Petersburg

Another group involved in the war is said to be the “Russian Imperial Legion” (RIL), which presents itself as ultra-nationalist, revisionist and monarchist. As a paramalitarian arm of the “Russian Imperial Movement” from St. Petersburg, it is said to have been involved in fighting in Ukraine in 2014 in the Donbass. It is listed as a terrorist organization in the US and Canada.

RIL and “Russitsch” appeared in a confidential report by the Federal Intelligence Service (BND), from which “Spiegel” quoted in mid-May. In response to a request from Martina Renner, member of the Left Party Bundestag, the Federal Ministry of the Interior announced that RIL operates a “Partisan” training center in St. Petersburg, where veterans receive training in weapons, close combat and the use of paramilitary strategies and tactics. A few EU citizens also took part, including members of the “Young Nationalists” organization and the “The Third Way” party.

“Denazification has no basis whatsoever”

Renner emphasizes that there are many connections between German neo-Nazis in Russia and that intensive work is being done on networks. “Nationalist great power fantasies, anti-Semitism and racism are ideological commonalities on which the struggle of Russian-influenced separatist groups in eastern Ukraine has been based since 2014. German security authorities will have to take a much closer look here in future if German right-wing extremists want to travel to Russia,” wrote Renner tagesschau.de.

According to Renner, the Russian narrative of denazification in Ukraine is completely unfounded. “Ultimately, it serves to dehumanize Ukrainian society in order to justify one’s own obviously committed war crimes.”

Right-wing extremist scene in Russia

After years of serious crimes against migrants, the Russian state took massive action against the right-wing extremist scene. The Maidan uprising and the war in eastern Ukraine from 2014 also led to a split. Some remained in opposition to the Russian leadership, some even sided with the “brother Ukrainian people”.

Another part is increasingly taking imperialist and revisionist positions and is therefore not far removed from the positions taken by the leadership around Putin. Apparently, the Russian military leadership tolerates their activities in Ukraine, if not even encourages them through recruitment measures, in order to fill their own ranks and achieve the goal of destroying the Ukrainian state.

The BND report quoted by “Spiegel” caused a greater echo in the Russian and Ukrainian media, which emphasized on the one hand that the involvement of Russian ultra-nationalists and right-wing extremists in the war in Ukraine was an open secret. On the other hand, reference was made to the director of the SOWA analysis center for nationalism and racism, Alexander Werchowski. According to him, the number of right-wing extremists in Ukraine is not high.