Russia approaches homeless to enlist in military and replenish troops amid war: Report

In an effort to replenish troops to deploy for the "special military operation" declared by President Vladimir Putin in February, Russia's Ministry of Defense (MoD) is trying to get homeless people to enlist in the military, a source from Russian non-governmental homeless charity centre, Nochlezhka, told the Ukrainian newspaper Bumaga. As the Russian offensive in Ukraine dragged on for several months, Russian military forces have incurred significant troop losses. And so, they have ramped up efforts to get military recruits from the homeless shelter located in Obukhov, a municipal okrug (territory) in Nevsky District of the federal city of St. Petersburg, Bumaga reported. 

According to the press service of the charitable organization, officials from the administration of the Frunzensky District, Moscow, visited the Nochlezhka homeless shelter. A representative from the NGO told the paper that they attempted to talk to the organization's beneficiaries and left the forms for enlistment as well as leaflets carrying information about contract service for military recruitment. "The shelter duty officer did not allow this to be done and asked the officials to talk to the management," according to the paper.

Credit: Telegram/Бумага

A spokesperson for the charity, Tatyana Bazhenova, stressed that the centre cannot facilitate military recruitment for the inmates. "We have always been out of religion and out of politics, so we can't help in this matter," she emphasized. But the representatives of the administration of the Frunzensky district attempted to contact Nochlezhka by e-mail, again. "Their main goal is "to convey information about contract service to everyone possible," the administration of the Frunzensky district clarified in a statement to Rotunda. 

Prisoners asked to enlist in exchange for amnesty

In its rigorous attempt to palliate the manpower shortage in the military, Moscow had also offered the prisoners at the penal colony in St. Petersburg to enlist in exchange for an amnesty, a woman whose boyfriend is serving a sentence in a detention facility told Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The uniformed men who arrived in the penal colonies asked those held in detention to fight alongside the Russian army in Ukraine. 

Alexei Tabalov, a lawyer who runs the Conscript’s School legal aid group, said that hundreds of Russian soldiers have been trying to quit the military due to the war. “We’re seeing a huge outflow of people who want to leave the war zone — those who have been serving for a long time and those who have signed a contract just recently,” Tabalov was quoted as saying.