Karina Bovsunovskaya20:56, 02.09.24

According to volunteers, most of the homeless people in Siberia do not return from the war.

Russian officials are actively seeking new soldiers in homeless shelters across Siberia and the Far East. In this way, Moscow is trying to meet its needs, which have grown due to the Ukrainian offensive in the Kursk region, sources of the Radio Liberty project “Siberia.Realities” report.

According to volunteers and workers at homeless shelters, the recruitment campaign happens from time to time. In particular, a volunteer at a shelter in the suburbs of Angarsk, an industrial city in the Irkutsk region, noted that in 2023, recruiters “came to us almost every month with leaflets that urged people to sign contracts.”

“Of course, these fools were tempted [by the contract salary],” she said, referring to the homeless residents of the shelter.

The publication noted that the ad, which was posted on the website of a rural administration in the Irkutsk region, offers healthy adult men a one-time payment of 400,000 rubles ($4,388), as well as monthly payments of 210,000 rubles ($2,304) and other benefits. If the contract is extended for more than one year, it brings an additional bonus of 195,000 rubles ($2,139).

At the same time, a volunteer at a shelter in the suburbs of Angarsk says that the homeless do not fully understand that they are gambling with their lives.

“They believe that you can return from war. And they don’t understand that, apart from the first guys [who signed six-month contracts in 2022], no one returned alive,” she stressed.

Another volunteer at the homeless shelter told reporters that of the more than 50 homeless men who have disappeared from the shelter since the summer of 2022, only two have returned, both without money.

“The rest… God willing, they get stuck on the way [to the war], drinking away their earnings. Most likely, they are already dead,” the woman said.

In turn, a volunteer at another shelter noted that a former resident of the institution called and said that out of his company, which consisted of 50 people, only he and one other soldier survived. According to the homeless man, after he refused to be “cannon fodder,” he was thrown into a “penalty pit” – an improvised prison for soldiers in basements or holes in the ground.

(C)UNIAN 2024