Thousands of Russians have taken on military careers since the 2022 invasion, drawn by incentives and domestic tactics. Ivan Chenin left a civil service job to volunteer aid to Donetsk and Luhansk, later enlisting in the Thunder Cascade volunteer unit and operating reconnaissance UAVs that directed artillery and missile strikes. Nearly half a million people joined Russian forces last year as contract soldiers or volunteers. Russian recruitment reportedly outpaces Ukraine’s. Kyiv officials say Russia plans a 150,000-soldier increase and monthly fulfillment of quotas at roughly 105–110 percent. The British Ministry of Defence reported over a million Russian wartime deaths, a figure that cannot be independently verified.
When President Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Ivan Chenin left his comfortable life working as a civil servant in Moscow to deliver aid as a volunteer to the separatist Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics of eastern Ukraine, which Russia now claims as its new territories. After returning from a trip to the occupied areas of Ukraine last year, Chenin jumped further into the fray, enlisting in the Thunder Cascade volunteer unit.
I served as an operator of a reconnaissance UAV [drone], Chenin told Al Jazeera. My duties included surveillance and reconnaissance of enemy territory. If a target was detected, I reported to the commander, after which we controlled it. Then the artillery or missile systems worked. Chenin is one of nearly half a million people who took on a military career in Russia last year, whether as contract soldiers or members of volunteer units.
Ukrainian officials in Kyiv said in April that the Russian military plans to increase its grouping in Ukraine by 150,000 soldiers this year. The deputy head of Ukraine's military intelligence, Vadym Skibitsky, stated that the Russian Federation's recruitment plans are being fulfilled by 105 to 110 percent each month, putting it well on track to fulfil its quotas by the end of the year.
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