Ukraine has alleged that Vladimir Putin is creating his own “private military” made up of football hooligans after catastrophic losses on the battlefield in 2023.
Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (the GUR) released a statement on Wednesday claiming that United Russia, allies of Putin and the conservative political party with the most seats in parliament, has started putting together the group, known as Hispaniola.
The group previously existed as part of the militant group Vostok battalion who fought alongside Russian troops in Ukraine, and was a “volunteer unit of Russian football hooligans,” according to thw GUR. It is now funded and controlled by United Russia.
The statement said: “At Hispaniola recruiting centers operating in the occupied Ukrainian territories, volunteers are promised 220,000 rubles [roughly £1,892] a month for direct participation in hostilities against Ukraine. The contract is for at least half a year.”
Members of the private military company are also offered what Kyiv officials called “insurance payments” that promise to pay out in the event of injuries or death. According to them, one million rubles (£8,626) is paid for injuries and five million (£43,132) to their family should they die.
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But the GUR said that this money means nothing to the Russians and is merely a way of securing troops before sending them to their death on the battlefield.
Their statement continued: “Financial motivation serves only as a wrapper. For most recruits, the first fight is a one-way ticket. The Russians do not take the dead and seriously wounded from among the recruited ‘cannon fodder’ from the battlefield, they file them as ‘missing persons’ in order not to pay the relatives rubles for the breadwinner sent by Moscow to die.”
Previously, the agency said that Moscow was using private military company the Wagner Group to help its forces on the front line in Ukraine, as well as helping Putin to establish footholds in the Middle East and Africa. The mercenary group has repeatedly been accused of committing war crimes and was involved in a failed mutiny in June 2023.
Russia experienced staggering losses during its war with Ukraine in 2023, with Kyiv estimating that over a quarter of a million of its troops died during that year alone.
The US has recorded 315,000 deaths of Russian troops since the war began in February 2022, according to a declassified intelligence document.
Putin has used private military company fighters throughout the war, since it began nearly two years ago, to strengthen his front lines.
