The Ukrainian abroad Intelligence Service reported on 21 August that Minsk was allowing Belarusians to be recruited into the Russian army through service in the national domain. Candidates are promised about $28,000 per contract. For Poland, this means deeper engagement of Belarus in the Russian war device right at the NATO border.
Recruitment under Minsk
The Ukrainian abroad Intelligence Service reported on 21 August that Minsk was allowing Belarusians to be recruited into the Russian army through service in the national domain. Candidates are promised about $28,000 per contract. For Poland, this means deeper engagement of Belarus in the Russian war device right at the NATO border.
By SZRU message the first specified Verbunkov resource appeared in the Belarusian national domain. Ukrainian intelligence links this to the politics of the government of Alaksandra Lukashenko, which has made Russia available territory, infrastructure and political facilities for war against Ukraine since 2022.
This is not a insignificant news episode. If the verbunkov site operates in the national domain and the Belarusian state controls this area administratively, it is hard to talk of a simple private initiative. Minsk may not send a regular army to the front, but it allows Moscow to search for people under its own name. It's a convenient form of war without a formal decision to enter it.
Contract and front money in Ukraine
According to Kresy.pl, citing Ukrainian intelligence and findings of earlier media, the offer was directed to men aged 18 to 58. For signing a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defence, 2.3 million Russian rubles were promised, or around $28,000. The monthly wage was about 260 1000 rubles.
It's a simple and brutal mechanism. Russia does not win qualitatively, so it tries to buy further vintages of people from dependent countries, poorer or politically broken. In Belarus, it comes to the ground prepared by years of Minsk's dependence on the Kremlin. DN has already written about how Lukashenka mixes Belarusians with Russian projectBy taking distant your own country's leftovers of independence.
According to SZRU, recruiters besides provided bonuses for participation in offensive activities, advance of assault and demolition of enemy equipment. You gotta read it cold: there is simply a real death at the front behind money. This is Russian imperial policy in practice. First the promise of a passport, wage and one-time pay, then trenches in Ukraine and a contract that frequently cannot be broken.
Belarus as a base of war
The Central European Institute described earlier that Belarusians are becoming an expanding group in Russian armed forces in Ukraine. The authors besides pointed to the paradox of Belarusian law: the service in the abroad army and the mercenaries are formally punished, but the government strikes first of all those who fight on the side of Ukraine alternatively than those who have signed with Russia.
In the latest communication, the Ukrainian service reported that by 2026 almost 2.9 1000 Belarusian citizens were to be swept through the Russian army, and at least 440 were to be killed. This is the data of the Ukrainian web page, which is why they request to be described. However, the scale itself shows the direction: Belarus is little and little buffer and more and more the construction of the Russian war system.
For Poland this case is of direct importance. Belarus is not a distant country with a staff map. It's a neighbour through whom Moscow puts military, information and border pressure. In fresh days, DN described even the case erstwhile NATO tunnel led from Belarus. There is now another dimension: the usage of Belarusian citizens as the backdrop of a individual Russian army.
Poland must look without illusions
Poland's right state requires hard realism. It is not allowed to pretend that Minsk is simply a stand-alone partner, since in key cases it acts as a Moscow tool. Nor should the problem be brought to Ukraine itself. all additional recruitment channel for the Russian army means a longer war, more force on the east flank of NATO and more safety costs for Poland.
Russian strikes, specified as fresh attacks on Kiev and civilian infrastructure, are performed by a device that needs people, money and backroom. If Belarus helps to supply even part of this resource, it is on the side of danger. Poles should see this process without sentimental illusions: the border with Belarus is not a peaceful neighbourhood but a line of contact with the Russian strategy of pressure.
Source: SHRUS, == sync, corrected by elderman ==, Institute of Central Europe
