The Russian military is targeting women in its latest drive to recruit soldiers for its war in Ukraine.
According to an advertisement in the western Siberian region of Omsk, potential female recruits would fill the roles of doctors, nurses, and cooks.
They could be sent to the occupied Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhya.
An independent news outlet called the hotline on the advertisement and was told that women under 50 are being encouraged to sign one-year contracts.
They could enter with “minimal” professional training, the recruiter said in the call.
Earlier this year, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that around 1,100 women were involved in Moscow’s combat operations in Ukraine.
Addressing ‘Depleted’ Force?
Reports about Russia recruiting women first emerged a few months ago when its forces reportedly suffered huge losses.
Now that Kyiv has launched its highly-anticipated spring counteroffensive, Moscow is ramping up efforts to further mobilize its military.
The first independent statistical analysis of Russia’s war dead found nearly 50,000 Russian soldiers have been killed since the invasion began in February 2022.
Roughly 180,000 have also been wounded due to Kyiv’s counterattacks, boosted by Western-supplied weapons.
In May this year, President Vladimir Putin made a renewed attempt to entice civilians to join his ground forces in Ukraine.
His government offered salaries up to 10 times higher than the country’s average, illustrating the pressure Moscow is under to replenish the army’s depleted ranks.