After the Moskva was sunk, the Russian Navy posted new openings for contract sailors
After the Moskva was sunk, the Russian Navy posted new openings for contract sailors
Families of missing sailors are still waiting for news
Following Ukraine’s successful Neptune missile attack on the Missile Cruiser Moskva during the early hours of April 14 (Kyiv time), a new job posting appeared on April 17th for the 41st Brigade of Missile Boats (V/Ch 72165). These are smaller vessels, formerly called “Torpedo Boats”, grouped under the following organizations:
166th Missile Small Ship Battalion (Streletskaya Bay (Sevastopol), Crimean Oblast)
349th Missile Boat Battalion (Inkerman, Crimean Oblast)
295th Missile Boat Battalion (Streletskaya Bay (Sevastopol), Crimean Oblast)
296th Missile Boat Battalion (Chernomorskoye, Crimean Oblast)
73rd Missile and Torpedo Boat Battalion (Streletskaya Bay (Sevastopol), Crimean Oblast)
604th Coastal Base (Sevastopol, Crimean Oblast)
Job Opening - Contract Soldier in Sevastopol - V/Ch 72165 (English machine translation is below)
Description: The military unit of Sevastopol, the oldest in the Black Sea Fleet, with a history of more than 100 years!!!
Requirements: Place of residence does not matter. Applications will be sent via Email, WhatsApp, or Viber.
Responsibilities: Military service under a contract in the Navy of the Black Sea Fleet, Sevastopol (seafarers, surface ships).
Conditions: Working day from 07.50 to 17.50, from Monday to Friday, on Saturday from 09.00 to 14.00. Sunday is a day off. SALARY from 43000 rubles. (excluding all taxes, i.e. the amount "on hand") and above, + additional payments for going to sea about 9000 rubles, + payments for the highest level of passing standards for physical training 8000 rubles, TOTAL 60000 rubles, + WE RENT HOUSING for 1 person. 13 945 rubles; for 2 people 18 607 rubles; for 3 people 22031 r. PRIVILEGE SERVICE: 1 year of service counts as 1 year 3 months of service. 4 meals a day, there is an opportunity to live on a ship, uniforms are free, a LIFT BENEFITS is paid upon arrival at a new duty station in the amount of 10,692 rubles. It is possible to live on a ship! VACATION from 45 days annually. APPLY from 08.00 to 21.00 LUNCH from 13.00 to 15.00 Sunday closed. Moscow time.
Recruitment Problems Are Systemic
A 2020 telegram from the Acting Commander of V/Ch 80165 provided to Inside Cyber Warfare by GUR’s Cyber unit showed that the Black Sea Fleet was suffering from recruitment problems.
An analysis of the staffing of the ships of the formation with military personnel under the contract showed that the command of the formation and subordinate ships failed to fully ensure the staffing of the specified category of military personnel, so the statistics show a decrease in the number of military personnel under the contract:
From May 2019 to May 2020.
Dismissed 59 servicemen under the contract, of which: at the end of the contract - 53; for health reasons - 4; according to NUK - 3; at will - 1.
Arrived - 53 military personnel, of which: from the military unit on conscription - 18; called from stock - 28; from other military units - 7.
The formation organized work with military personnel to extend contracts (during the specified period, 96 military personnel extended the contract), work with sponsored regions to attract draft youth to contract service on the ships of the formation remains at a low level, so for the specified period only 7 people arrived from sponsoring regions for contract service. The main reason for this is the unwillingness of the employees of the selection points for contract servicemen to engage in agitation of recruits on the ground in sponsored regions (only conscripts are sent to serve on sponsored ships).
The sinking of the Moskva will make matters worse because according to an article in the April 20th Daily Mail, conscripts had been aboard the vessel when it sunk in spite of the fact that Putin had made assurances that anyone serving compulsory service would not go to Ukraine.
The young naval sailors, many of whom are 19-years-old, are missing and presumed dead after being on board the stricken flagship when it was hit by two Ukrainian missiles in the Black Sea.
Now their parents are demanding retribution for the 'war crime' and punishment for the 'scumbags' who sent them to their deaths in one of the biggest displays of Russian outrage at Vladimir Putin's war seen so far.
The recruitment issues that the Russia’s Black Sea Fleet faced before the invasion of Ukraine can only have deteriorated further, post-invasion.
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