Russia calls for ‘real’ men to join the army in video recruitment drive

Key Points

• The Russian military is aiming to recruit up to 400,000 soldiers to fight in Ukraine, according to reports.
• It has shared videos asking for ‘real’ men to sign up.
• Posters promise potential recruits “respect, an honourable profession and decent pay”.

The Russian military has launched a campaign to swell its troop numbers in Ukraine with a video challenging citizens to show they are “a real man” and swap hum-drum civilian life for the battlefield.

The ad, set to stirring music, follows a report from British military intelligence and Russian media reports that suggest Moscow is seeking to recruit up to 400,000 professional soldiers – on a volunteer basis – to bolster its forces in Ukraine.

The ad opens with a man at a supermarket entrance dressed in a military uniform holding a machine gun. He is then shown in the uniform of a security guard with on-screen text posing the question:

“Is this the kind of defender you dreamt of becoming?”

He is then shown as a gym instructor helping a client lift weights.

“Is this really where your strength lies?” the video asks, before cutting to a taxi driver taking a client’s fare, who then transforms into a soldier on the battlefield.

“You’re a real man. Be one,” says the ad.

After launching a partial mobilisation drive in September which prompted tens of thousands of Russian men to flee the country to avoid being drafted, the authorities are playing down the possibility of a second mobilisation call – despite

to introduce electronic call up papers to clamp down on draft dodgers – and are seeking to recruit volunteers instead.

Posters seeking professional soldiers have sprung up in the Russian capital in recent weeks declaring that “Our Profession is to defend the Motherland.”

The posters, which say the army is looking for gunners, sappers, military medics, drivers and tank commanders, promise potential recruits “respect, an honourable profession and decent pay”.

Russia doesn’t disclose full casualty figures but up to 43,000 Russians have been killed in the war so far, according to a recently

estimate from the US Defence Intelligence Agency.