Soldier wanted in Ukraine: send your resume to this address and we will call you

Before the war in the trenches there is the one that is fought in the heads of each of the future soldiers. An internal conflict, sometimes heartbreaking, between participating or not in the military defense of Ukraine, besieged by the Russian army for almost 23 months. Stepan Kulyna, 29, a native of Chervonograd, in the western part of the country, has now put an end to that internal conflict and has begun his participation in the process of mobilizing new recruits that the Armed Forces of Ukraine need to relieve thousands of soldiers. exhausted. “I had a lot of doubts: yes or no, where to go, what to do,” Kulyna confesses in an old bus station converted into a cafeteria in the artistic district of Podil, in Kiev, the capital, covered these days by snow. The decision is made. He has contacted a couple of brigades and has submitted his application through a private employment platform, one of the growing avenues promoted by Volodymyr Zelensky's Government: enlistment based on qualities instead of compulsory service. A new scenario that, however, is still far from guaranteeing the half a million new recruits that kyiv requires. Meanwhile, Moscow relieves its men in the east with some agility.

Ukraine certainly needs new recruits. With the large-scale invasion initiated by Russia on February 24, 2022, the Ukrainian Executive decreed martial law that prohibited men between 18 and 60 years old from leaving the country – with exceptions, among others, linked to family size, situations of dependency or disability―. However, the volunteer army fueled the Ukrainian battalion and recruited men during the first months, made possible thanks to the legal framework that governs the country. This voluntariness has been exhausted as the forces on the front ―at the same time, reports of forced mobilization have multiplied in some parts of the country―.

Kulyna, with medium hair and blue eyes, takes great care with her words. She meditates before speaking; She maintains long silences as she seems to shape what she thinks with the movement of her hands. “My decision,” she says, “has been maturing within me since the beginning of the large-scale invasion.” She studied Finance and Banking, although she now directs commercials and music videos. He wants to be a film director. Like so many other Ukrainians, Kulyna recognizes that he can connect with those who tell him that he has to go to the front, that it is time, but he also understands when others encourage him otherwise because you only live once and war will always be there.

—Two very different life options, right?

—Yes, so I asked myself who I want to be: someone with a perfect, satisfying life, or someone who fights, does not escape and is responsible for the well-being of people.

—He chose the latter.

-Yeah.

And all despite the fact that this option can even affect your love life. In any case, the way in which Kulyna is managing his mobilization falls outside the recruitment processes that have traditionally fueled war. He is in contact with two military units with vacancies. But, in addition, he has sent an application with his resume to the human resources company Lobby, which has maintained a cooperation agreement with the Ministry of Defense since November. “They look for a position where they can fit in and be more useful,” he says, “it is a way, as happens in finance, of buying options; “I think everyone has the right to decide.”

That is the debate in Ukraine, exhausted after almost two years of Russian offensive, with a lack of weapons and ammunition, and already on the defensive on the front: it is the recruits who decide where to go voluntarily and according to their profile or it is the military commanders those who direct the entire process with martial law in hand.

Delay with the new law

During the last months of last year, the Ministry of Defense, led by Rustem Umerov, has worked together with the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Valeri Zaluzhni, on a new mobilization law. As confirmed by President Zelensky, the objective of the high command is to recruit between 450,000 and 500,000 people. This would cost, according to the calculations made by the former comedy actor, about 12,000 million euros. The bill reached Parliament last month, but without the consensus of the groups and with criticism from the House Anti-Corruption Committee. The draft, in general terms, advances the recruitment age from 27 to 25 years; tightens the list of exemptions for health problems; strengthens restrictions for those who do not register at recruitment centers; demands control of men of combat age who have left the country… The Government, due to the lack of support, withdrew the text for review last Thursday.

A new delay at a delicate moment in the theater of operations and when, as analyzed last week by the Institute for the Study of Wara specialist in monitoring the conflict from its headquarters in Washington, Russia now allows itself, with its entire land force present in eastern Ukraine (with an estimated 462,000 soldiers), to carry out routine rotations of its troops at the operational level.

At 2 Independence Square in Kiev, the heart of the protests that forced pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych to flee the country a decade ago, are the offices of Lobby Lugansk, in the eastern strip controlled by Moscow, is its founder and general director. An economist himself, he joined the military defense of Ukraine just one day after Russia invaded by land, sea and air. But they were other times. He ended up in the volunteer unit and from there he was able to demobilize around the summer. It was then that his employment company began to pick up cruising speed in recruiting for the mili
tary.

“During my experience in the military unit,” Greziev relates, at a cautious volume, but at an accelerated pace, “I saw examples of people who were not in the place they should be, although I also remember how a friend managed with his experience to build good capabilities in resource management.” How it works: Lobby X receives a vacancy for a position in one of the 300 brigades with which he works. They write the offer, with a description of the position and the destination unit; They announce it on his website and the process is opened to candidates. Those interested have to send an email with the application and their resume, which will finally reach the military commanders. If it fits, a first meeting is organized, perhaps remotely, and then a second to seal the contract.

Greziev, who estimates that he and his team of 20 workers have already received some 57,000 applications for some 1,500 vacancies, shows on his mobile phone a graph with the evolution of requests for a position in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. “It's growing,” he adds. Indeed, according to the curve drawn by the data, especially after the cooperation agreement with Defense, applications have skyrocketed through this platform. And all despite allegations of corruption within the army. “It is not the main reason for someone to demobilize,” clarifies this young businessman, “but the lack of equipment, trust in a military unit or the direction of a commander is.”

Corruption in the ranks

Vitali Shabunin, 39, co-founder of the civil organization Antac (Anti-Corruption Action Center). He is also one of those who launched himself into the military defense of the country after February 24, 2022, but, in this case, he never left it. He is still part of a unit, stationed in the Ukrainian capital, but with time to also combat corruption that seems endemic. Although things are improving. This has been the case with the new Defense Ministry team under Umerov – the previous minister, Oleksi Reznikov, left office after a scandal over the purchase of food for the army. “The system is starting to operate correctly,” says Shabunin at Antac headquarters. “After the scandal with Reznikov it was clear that there had to be a clean sweep in Defense,” he continues.

He maintains that it has been precisely in the contracting of material for the army with public money that a lot of money has been leaked and not so much in bribes to avoid the levy.

—Does the level of corruption in the army demotivate potential recruits?

—No, no, the percentage of those who have escaped possible recruitment [de un modo fraudulento] It is very low. Sooner or later, all men will have to serve in the army.

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