Private military company (PMC) Wagner has been found to have distributed online ads that attempt to recruit Kyrgyzstan residents to fight for Russia in its war against Ukraine.
The Center for Investigative Journalism "MediaHub" has drawn attention to the appearance on social networks in Kyrgyzstan of ads that aim to recruit residents for the war under the guise of recruiting employees for private security companies in the regions of Russia.
Recruiting Kyrgyzstan Residents
Several journalists published a screenshot of the corresponding ad that was posted on the Kg.zarplata channel on Instagram. It seems that individuals were being recruited to protect industrial enterprises with the prospect of obtaining Russian citizenship.
The salary for the job starts from 100,000 rubles, roughly $1,700, per month and the same ads were being placed with a focus on citizens of Uzbekistan. Journalists called the "employers" and discovered that the advertised work is for four months or more with a monthly remuneration of 240,000 rubles, roughly $4,100, as long as they perform "tasks" in the war zone in Ukraine, as per Pravda.
The alleged employer said that it was working in the interests of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. However, given the fact that the assembly point is indicated in the hamlet of Mulino in Russia's Krasnodar Kray, we are talking about the base and recruitment point of PMC Wagner, as pointed out by journalists.
The investigations claim that even citizens with criminal records were being recruited for the war but no compensation was provided in the event of injury. Furthermore, the Russian publication "Important Stories" published an investigation on July 20 where it said that PMC Wagner was recruiting for service among Russian prisoners in one and a half dozen [penal] colonies in Russia.
According to Yahoo News, the incident comes as Russia has faced heavy military casualties in its five-month-long invasion of Ukraine. This has forced Moscow to search for new ways to shore up its manpower without declaring a full mobilization.
Severe Military Losses
Later on, the recruiter said that it was no longer seeking security guards "due to a change in priorities." MediaHub noted that for service longer than six months, the employer was providing a simplified form of obtaining Russian citizenship.
The offer also specified that employees should not have European or NATO-member citizenship and revealed the expected length of the job. Wagner is believed to be owned by Kremlin-linked catering magnate Yevgeny Prigozhin and reportedly sent its mercenaries to conflict zones in Syria, the Central African Republic, Libya, and eastern Ukraine.
Previously, the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defense said that Wagner had been brought in to "reinforce front-line forces and to mitigate manning shortfalls and casualties." Officials said that Wagner has almost certainly played a central role in recent fighting, including the capture of Popasna and Lysychansk.
The Defense Ministry said that Wagner was lowering its recruitment standards and has opted to hire convicts and formerly blacklisted individuals to fight in the war against Ukraine due to severe losses among the Russian forces, CNBC reported.
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