"Cannon fodder" from Crimea: How "newcomers" and natives from Crimea are sent to war

The latest decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding the army envisages an increase in its personnel compared to last year by 180,000 people. According to the document, which will enter into force in December 2024, the full strength of the Russian army will be 2,389,130 people, including 1,500,000 military personnel. What real future awaits potential Russian soldiers, sailors and officers from the ranks of native and "new" residents of the annexed Crimea?
It turns out that Putin's current military increase decree is the third since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Until August 2022, the number of personnel of the Armed Forces of Russia was determined by a "peaceful" presidential decree of 2017. According to the document, the number of Russian armed forces should have been 1,013,628 people.
In Putin's old and new decrees, there is no "breakdown", that is, accurate indicators of the number of soldiers on recruitment, contract and mobilization. According to the old formalized practice, these exact indicators will be determined by the corresponding order of the Minister of Defense of Russia, the directive of the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, etc.
Of course, this decree will soon, and probably will continue to, directly affect young men and women between the ages of 18 and 60 from Crimea who are subject to conscription and mobilization as reservists. According to Olga Skripnik, head of the Crimean Human Rights Group, during the period of annexation of Crimea, Russia recruited at least 40,000 residents of the peninsula into its army, which is considered a war crime.
From 2022, Russia began to hide these indicators. Some experts assume that the Crimean military commissars sent about 6,000 men into the army every year.
"Most likely in 2022 it was more than standard," Skripnik said.
The "hunt" for contractors continues
The leadership of the Kremlin, which "worked on mistakes" after the decree on "partial" mobilization of September 21, 2022, continues to replenish "cannon fodder" for the front mainly at the expense of contractors. Commands of military units are "looking for" them among subordinate conscripts, as well as various civil servants together with military commissars in the field, among those who are "liberated".
"My son didn't finish college and was called up for military service a few months before graduation," Alla, a resident of Simferopol, whose real name has been changed for security reasons, told the author about her family's history. He entered the "training school" in Sevastopol. There, his commanders persistently urged him to sign the contract. It was very difficult for me to persuade him not to do it. We did everything to send him closer to home. There, the son was also methodically processed to sign the contract. I categorically told him: "Don't think about it". I'm glad he listened. Now I'm calm, I'm waiting for his "dismissal".

Behind the fences of Russian military units, pressure continues to be put on individuals to sign contract service in the army, Rosguard and other power structures. However, the residents of Crimea themselves claim that they are not as valuable now as, say, in the early spring of 2024. Then the army deployed mobile mobilization points with "patriotic" musical accompaniment, a demonstration of modern small arms on the embankments of the resort, in the center of the Crimean capital.
At the beginning of autumn, in the cities and villages of the Crimean peninsula, only street billboards for advertising or simple announcements can still be seen. Like, for example, in Simferopol, near the gate of the city's Military Committee.
Or at the front of the "Kolos" hotel near the central market, where they are invited to serve in the local unit of Rosvardija.
Local buses and trolleybuses "carry" similar advertisements inside.
It can also be seen in front of the entrance to the administration building of the Mikolaivka resort.
However, to a certain extent, the photo exhibition organized by the Russian administration of Yevpatoriya in Duvanovska Street "Wife and Mother of Heroes" can be counted as a fresh "live" advertising campaign.
Millionaires from capital cities and distant suburbs
But still, it must be admitted: advertising campaigns and special monetary promises of the Russian Ministry of Defense in Russia and its annexed Crimea do not pass without a trace.
Over the course of a year, the number of people signing contracts for service in the Russian army has increased more than six times, according to the publication "Vazhne istorije", based on data on the expenditures of the federal budget of Russia.
According to this data, if in the first half of 2023, 26,700 people received a one-time payment for signing a contract, while in the same period of 2024 - 166,000. Only from April to June of this year, almost 93,000 people joined the Russian army under contract.
In Moscow, the amount of the one-time award for those who signed the agreement with the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reached 1.9 million rubles, in the Moscow region - 1.7 million, in the Rostov region - 1.2 million, in Bashkortostan and Dagestan 0.5 million .
A previous surge in interest in the contract service came shortly before the attack by the Armed Forces of Ukraine - after Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin introduced a one-off payment of 1.9 million rubles in the capital on July 23, Russian publication Verstka reported. Prior to the introduction of the one-time payment, interest in contracts in Moscow fell throughout the year, despite the authorities' statements to the contrary. For example, in August 2023, more than 3,000 people agreed to participate in the war. In Crimea, 0.8 million was paid for signing a contract with the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation until the end of August 2024.
By the way, Muscovites recently increased this amount from 1.9 to 2.3 million rubles. Russian opposition politician, retired KGB-FSB colonel Gennady Gudkov has this information.
"We are running out of cannon fodder, otherwise why increase the one-time fee", believes Gudkov.
According to Gudkov, in preparation for the continuation of the war, orders were allegedly sent to military commissariats in Russia to send students, except for the first and final years, to the army.
Otherwise, this is nothing special. This practice was introduced in the Soviet Union at the height of the 1979-1989 Afghan war. At that time, junior commanders and specialists from the category of trained conscripts were urgently needed, first of all, by the "limited contingent of Soviet troops in the DRA" (Democratic Republic of Afghanistan), i.e. the 40th Combined Army of the Turkestan Military District, which was fighting "across the river". 
"Reference" formality
An old acquaintance Leonid, whose real name and exact place of work are hidden for security reasons, told the author about some characteristics of work and communication with potential recruits. The man has been working continuously for more than 10 years and is still working in one of the specialized Crimean health institutions. For the past two and a half years, he had to work with future and current Russian contract soldiers because of his service. They turn to him for certificates of eligibility for military service. In general, Leonid must check whether a person is registered or not due to a certain disease, put a stamp on the document and sign it.
"These kinds of certificates are requested more often this year than last year," says Leonid. "But for some reason, many of these requests do not come from the residents of Crimea, but from the "continental" (Russians who moved to Crimea - author's note). Either they already live here or they just arrived - I'm not really sure. Out of 10 registered persons, approximately only one to two are Crimeans. Military commissars and army commanders send them for this certificate. I tell them that we can only give the certificate to residents of our city, and you take Chelyabinsk, Omsk, Tomsk. Some immediately start shouting: "We are shedding blood for you there, we are protecting you, but it is not clear who you are here." It is necessary to issue a certificate that no deviations in the state of health were observed at the time of the examination. Pure formality, probably needed by army commanders," says Leonid.
According to Leonid, lately residents of the Krasnodar Territory and fair-skinned residents of Dagestan and Chechnya often apply for such certificates. Among them, as well as the residents of Crimea, there are plenty of those with anti-social elements in their behavior, those who at the age of 50 and over have neither a family, nor a permanent job, nor a home. They spent their entire conscious life fighting in Afghanistan and Syria. Now they openly say that they are going to "make money".
"We have an example of an employee of the outpatient clinic. He signed the contract last year," continues Leonid. "I ask him: "When are you coming back, when does the contract expire?". He says: "I finished a long time ago, no one just lets us go." It's a one-way street for us." I ask him: "Do you receive transfers?" "Maybe half, one-third arrive," he says.