Putin's party steps up recruitment to its private army, Española – Ukraine's Defence Intelligence

Vladimir Putin's United Russia party has acquired its own private army, the so-called private military company (PMC) Española, and is actively recruiting football ultras (the most hot-headed football fans), ultranationalists and civilians from impoverished regions of the Russian Federation and the occupied territories of Ukraine.

Source: Defence Intelligence of Ukraine (DIU)

Details: Defence Intelligence notes that Española, a volunteer unit of Russian football hooligans, was previously part of the so-called Vostok Battalion, a Russian militant group with alleged links to Russian intelligence which has fought in Donbas since 2014.

Since 2023, Española has been at the disposal of members of Putin's party. The terrorist unit has claimed the status of a so-called private military company and begun a recruitment campaign funded by money from United Russia.

According to Defence Intelligence, Española is recruiting so-called football ultras, Russian radicals of all stripes, including Nazi sympathisers, and ordinary civilians from impoverished regions of Russia and the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

"The latter are used in ‘meat-grinder’ assaults to create the status of a ‘combat unit’," Ukrainian military intelligence adds.

Quote from DIU: "At the Española recruitment centres operating in the occupied Ukrainian territories, volunteers are promised RUB 220,000 (about US$2,400) a month for direct participation in military operations against Ukraine. The contract is for a minimum of six months.

A further incentive to die for Moscow is the ‘insurance payments’: RUB 1 million (about US$7,700) for a minor injury; RUB 2 million (US$15,400) for a moderate injury; RUB 3 million (US$23,000) for a serious injury, and RUB 5 million (US$38,470) for death [in combat].

But the financial incentives are just window-dressing. For most of the recruits, their first battle is a one-way ticket. The Russians don’t remove any dead or seriously wounded cannon fodder recruits from the battlefield - they register them as ‘missing’ to avoid paying families any roubles for their breadwinners who were sent to their deaths by Moscow."

Background: 

• In November 2023, Russian media outlet Vazhnye Istorii (Important Stories) reported that the Española Battalion of Russian mercenaries, which is part of the PMC Redut, had started hiring women to fight in assault detachments.
• Española was mentioned as having been near Bakhmut in August 2023.
• On 30 December, TASS reported that the Española football fan unit had established a detachment that specialises in using Privet (Hello) strike and reconnaissance kamikaze drones on the front line in Ukraine.

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