Scores of job advertisements for trench diggers and construction workers in the Kursk region have appeared online in recent days as Russian forces struggle to hold back advancing Ukrainian troops following their surprise offensive last week.
The BBC’s Russian service reported Wednesday that it found at least 30 listings for trench diggers on the classifieds website Avito, offering up to 371,000 rubles ($4,000) for an unspecified period of work.
Avito later took down those advertisements, a company spokesperson told the RBC business news website. The company said it had reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry about the listings.
The surge in job advertisements comes after satellite images published earlier this week revealed newly dug trenches along roads and villages in the Kursk region, as well as the Kursk nuclear power plant — located around 50 kilometers from the Russian-Ukrainian border.
A recruiter for a trench-digging job advertisement posted on the Russian social media website VKontakte told The Moscow Times over the phone that “a lot of people are needed urgently.”
According to the recruiter, the construction company they represent offers daily pay ranging from 5,000 to 7,000 rubles ($56-79), with the possibility of negotiating weekends off. Both the identity of the recruiter and the name of the company were withheld for safety reasons.
The recruiter said that around 500 workers are needed and acknowledged the hazardous nature of the work during the “anti-terrorist regime,” which Putin introduced late last week to halt the border clashes.
“There’s a risk, of course, and everyone will be covered by insurance,” the recruiter said, adding that new hires would undergo a trial period in Moscow or St. Petersburg for up to two weeks before being sent to work in the Kursk region .
U.S. military analysts said over the weekend that the Russian military will likely commit more of its resources and manpower to constructing border fortifications after existing structures proved incapable of stopping the Ukrainian offensive.
With reporting by Kirill Ponomarev.
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