Paul
Goble
Staunton, October 10 – Facing ever
more difficulties in recruiting soldiers, the leaders of pro-Moscow forces in the
Donbass are now using a remarkable technique: They’ve organized an underground
casino where those who lose are compelled to pay off their debts by serving in
the militia to fight Ukraine.
Elena Gitlyanskaya, a press
spokesman for Ukraine’s security service, tells Kyiv’s “Segodnya” newspaper
that Ukrainian soldiers discovered this underground casino in Svetlodarsk, a settlement
not far from Gorlovka, which is occupied by pro-Moscow forces (segodnya.ua/criminal/proigral-v-kazino-zabrali-v-boeviki-na-donbasse-ispolzuyut-afrikanskie-metody-verbovki-758942.html).
She says that “the underground
operation, situated in an apartment there, used local criminals to achieve its
goals. According to preliminary
information, they were supporters of the illegal [pro-Moscow] military formations,”
and they worked by enticing “alcoholic and drug addicted” residents “by promising
easy money.”
When these visitors lost money and
often very small amounts, Gitlyanskaya continues, they were given a choice:
serve in the pro-Moscow forces and fight Ukraine or risk being beaten or worse
by the criminals. Those who “agreed” to
this form of “military slavery” were then dispatched to Gorlovka to join the
Russian forces there.
The SBU spokesperson adds that this
form of “’military slavery’ via roulette” is “far from the only method which
members of the self-proclaimed republics are using” to try to fill their ranks.
She says there are reports that these units are now recruiting drug addicts by
promising them that they will get their drugs if they serve in these militias.
Gitlyanskaya stresses that “such
phenomena are not massive,” but they are occurring and say much about the
nature of the pro-Russian forces and their increasing inability to recruit
local people to fight for them.
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