Russian soldiers face pressure to sign indefinite contracts

- Today they called and said: If you don't sign the contract, you'll go on the assault. They don't explain or justify anything; they just ordered us to sign—or it will be worse, reports a soldier from the Siversky direction.

"Sent to the assault" means transfer to separate assault companies, where the chances of survival, according to the military, are 10–15%.

The mobilized are not given time to think—some hear that the commander awaits their decision by the evening, others have just two hours to respond.

- Those who don't sign either go straight to the assault or are removed from their current positions, and it's unclear where they end up - says one of the soldiers.

Contracts are also being forced upon those mobilized who are not on the front line. Soldiers serving in the supply battalion are offered a three-year contract.

"Those who refused have already gone to the assault today" - wrote a soldier in one of the chats.

Those in the so-called convalescent regiment are also being forced to sign contracts—this includes those who have had surgery, are long-term sick, and those who have been injured.

According to an assault soldier fighting in the Kharkiv direction, the mobilized are being forced to sign contracts "so that later they can announce demobilization, and those who signed will be left in a special military operation". He added that "there is a shortage of people," and those currently fighting at the front "already have experience."

An employee of one of the special units of the Ministry of Defense noted that "there should be no people without a contract on the battlefront at all."

- No one will tell you why on earth it's necessary, but the only logical explanation is freezing the front and possible demobilization. It's about making sure as few people as possible return home - explained the interlocutor of "Verstka".

Meanwhile, a source from one of the central regions of Russia involved in recruitment for the war described the transformation of the mobilized into contract soldiers as the "cunning of military commissioners," not some "general directive."

- We need to show recruitment statistics for contracts, right? So we show them. The statistics don't indicate whether they're recruiting the mobilized or people from the street - said the informer.

A newspaper interlocutor from one of the state structures confirmed that in the case of contract soldiers, it is necessary to show an increase in the number of recruits and fill positions, especially officer ones. - With the command staff, it's a total mess. "Mobyki" (a slang term used in Russia for mobilized soldiers - ed. note) are an ideal cadre reservoir. There's no secret here - the goal is to transform all the mobilized into a regular army, that is, contract soldiers - he summed up.

As noted by "Verstka," attempts to force the mobilized to sign contracts have coincided with a decrease in the number of volunteers willing to participate in the war. Whereas in the fall, Moscow's Ministry of Defense recruitment centres saw 250 people daily, by January it was only around 40.