Russia turning occupied Donbas into huge military base to frighten Europe'

"A Russian officer in the Moscow-occupied part of the Donetsk region in southeastern Ukraine has reportedly become unusually lenient towards one new soldier. As the tale goes, the officer lets him spend several days in the administrative capital, also named Donetsk, and knowing that the serviceman is single and childless gives him the phone number of a nice woman. Overwhelmed by the war, the serviceman craves intimacy, and within days, the woman persuades him to get married."

"Elated after a short honeymoon, he gets back to his military unit, but instead of congratulating him, the officer sends him on a mission he never returns from. The nascent widow promptly cashes the coffin money, between 5 and 10 million rubles ($64,000-127,000) and splits it with the officer, who has already found her another fiance. It's a real business, a Donetsk resident told Al Jazeera, explaining an alleged scheme that has also been reported by Ukrainian and exiled Russian media last year."

Russian occupation is reshaping Donbas's economy into a wartime market driven by the large Russian military presence. Tens of thousands of soldiers generate demand for gear, food, entertainment and services, sustaining restaurants, alcohol shops, casinos, brothels and informal suppliers. Undersupplied troops buy equipment privately and rely on black markets for amphetamines and crystal meth to endure combat conditions. Fraud schemes exploit soldiers and civilians, including staged marriages to claim coffin payments shared with complicit officers. Industrial and mining infrastructure remains amid occupation, while some locals profit from collaboration, illicit trade and the surge in cash flows tied to deployed forces.

Read at www.aljazeera.com