Women began to be recruited for the war with Ukraine. An advertisement inviting women to sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense appeared in the Omsk sub-publics. The picture shows a smiling blonde in a military uniform offering women to “stand with the men in the same formation”. Doctors, paramedics, nurses and cooks are called for service.
A 7×7 reporter called the Omsk military registration and enlistment office. They confirmed that the corresponding recruitment is being conducted. A woman of up to 50 years of age can sign a contract. The term is at least one year, and during this period no vacations are provided. The requirements are minimal. For example, nurses and cooks are not required to have an education in their specialty.
It is not known where the women will be sent. The military registration and enlistment office said that they will serve in Russian regions, which also include Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhya regions of Ukraine after their annexation in the fall of 2022.
The military registration and enlistment office could not say how much the women would be paid. The employee said only that they will be paid “governor’s” 100 thousand rubles in the first month and 50 thousand in the next three months. The women will also receive a lump sum presidential payment of 195 thousand rubles. In order to get into the army, it is necessary to apply to the selection point for military service under the contract.
On March 7 this year, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said that 1,100 women are involved in the war with Ukraine, and every third has already received state awards. In total, more than 39,000 women are serving in the country’s armed forces, nearly 5,000 of them wear officers’ shoulder straps, he added.
The issue of sending women to the front came up after the announcement of mobilization in Russia. At that time, Shoigu assured that the Ministry of Defense did not intend to conscript women, “this was not in the plans for the future either.” However, the General Staff noted that exceptions could be made for medical workers, “but the need for such specialists is minimal”.
A specific case of a female doctor being drafted to be sent to Ukraine was told by Channel One correspondent Irina Kuksenkova. A cardiologist friend of hers, who has two minor children as her dependents, was mobilized in Vladimir. “It seems to me that this is some kind of mistake, a silly prank”, complained the employee of Channel One. According to her, a total of four female doctors in Vladimir were subject to mobilization.
Meanwhile the shortage of medical specialists in the war has been recently confirmed by the structures responsible for maintenance of the army. For example, in late April, Artem Katulin, head of the Tactical Medicine Training Center of the Kalashnikov Concern, said that more than half of the Russian soldiers who died in Ukraine died because of incompetent medical care. Many soldiers became disabled for the same reason, he noted.
