The war in Ukraine. Russia recruits volunteers for the army. Formation of a new Russian brigade

As stated in the latest report by the American Institute for the Studies of War (ISW), Orenburg Oblast in Russia The 72nd Mechanized Autonomous Brigade is being formed. According to experts, the volunteers, who were recently recruited in Penzen Oblast, will be sent to the unit.

“Governor Oleg Melnichenko said that Penzo Oblast has recruited 60 volunteers and will enlist another 60 volunteers for the needs of unspecified volunteer units, which will begin military service in the 72nd Autonomous Mechanized Brigade, part of the 3rd Army Corps in Tutskoy in Orenburg Oblast. ” Experts stress that there is no such brigade in the Russian army yet.

Melnizenko’s statement confirms ISW’s previous assumptions that the 3rd Army Corps consisted at least in part of volunteer battalions. Earlier training of volunteer battalions in Orenburg Oblast, mainly from Tatarstan and Bashkiria, was announced.

According to ISW, in the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk (in the declared and unrecognized “republics”), the Russians have recently launched another wave “hidden packing“The experts of the institute note that, according to the Ukrainian military intelligence, the so-called people’s republics” are forcibly mobilizing more men, including those who are unfit for service or those who have been postponed to the army. “

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According to a report by the American Research Center, the self-proclaimed authorities of the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic are creating new mechanized battalions and supplementing those already within the 2nd Army Corps. ISW, citing the head of the Ukrainian administration of the Luhansk Oblast, reports that the Russian paramilitary group Wagner (commonly known as Vladimir Putin’s Special Army) recruit prisoners.

In mid-July, a US think-tank reported that certain regions of Russia are building volunteer battalions, many of which are being built in areas inhabited by ethnic minorities. ISW experts had previously drawn attention to the spread of non-Russian ethnic battalions among the troops sent to it Ukraine. Among them are soldiers from Chechnya, Tuva, Tatarstan, Bashkiria, Chuvashia and other pockets of ethnic minorities in Russia.

According to experts of the institute, the authorities of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic Recruiting volunteers to serve the contractRefrain from another mobilization wave, and at the same time maintain the flow of new soldiers into the lost units. The administration entices potential recruits with profits initially amounting to 176-250 thousand rubles, that is, from about 13.5 to 19 thousand zlotys. The salary offered depends on the job.

As reported by ISW, the authorities of the so-called DRL are promoting recruitment through local channels on the Telegram platform.