Around 2,000 ads have appeared on Russia's Avito classifieds site since August 17, all with the same headline: "Security for WB and Ozon warehouses as part of a mobile fire group." The ads, reported by the independent outlet Verstka, are a cover for recruiting men into military contracts with the Defense Ministry.
The ad text reads: "Hurry to sign a contract for a favorable position with a one-time payment before mobilization processes begin," and notes that "the number of places is limited."
When Verstka journalists called the numbers listed, recruiters offered a one-year "special contract" with the Russian Defense Ministry to protect warehouses from drones. "We need healthy, non-convicted, up to 40 years old, very quick boys for security," one recruiter said, assuring that contract signers would not be sent to the front. A second recruiter echoed: "We need to fill rear units here. Things are burning every other day. But everyone is afraid of being sent to assault. We have nothing to do with that and won't send you there."
The application process is identical to that for war participants: applicants send documents, then are sent for training in Tula. Contract signers are promised a one-time payment of 3.1 million rubles. Phone numbers for details are saved in contact lists as "Olesya SVO" and "Military Commissariat of the Central Military District."
Three Verstka sources close to war recruiting said the ads are a cover for recruiting contract soldiers for the war in Ukraine. According to them, Avito strictly moderates the topic of the "special military operation," so ad authors use "veiled wording." A source in the Moscow mayor's office called it a "typical scam."
Earlier, Avito hosted military service offers disguised as civilian jobs: drivers of humanitarian cargo, warehouse guards in Belarus, or "peacekeepers." Such ads appear amid falling contract recruitment rates: according to Janis Kluge, an expert at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, 172,000 people were recruited in the first half of the year—19,000 fewer than a year earlier.