"There is a summons in your name in the registry" – this is the message that all Crimean men of draft age fear. It is an invitation to visit the military registration and enlistment office, which marks the beginning of a one-way journey. Ignoring the message will not go unpunished: failure to appear will result in access to banking services being cut off, personal data being sent to the traffic police and border guards, and threats of imprisonment. The occupiers are relentless: they have a plan, and failure to comply with it poses a mortal threat to them.

Every Russian region and every occupied Ukrainian territory has plans to recruit contract soldiers. Leaders who consistently show low performance risk more than just their jobs: an angry leadership may send them to storm Ukrainian plantations. My interlocutor Nikolai is connected with one of the local military registration and enlistment offices. He says that in Crimea, 500 people must sign contracts with the Russian army every month. It is almost never possible to meet this quota in full.

"The number of snouts remains the same all the time. No one cares what methods the military commissars use to achieve their goals... But! Everything must be done quietly. So that the population does not pay any attention to the constant recruitment of 'meat'. Otherwise, there are 'no losses', but they keep rowing without stopping. It doesn't add up," Nikolai explains the principle of operation of the Crimean military registration and enlistment offices.

The occupiers try to avoid mobilizing Crimeans, fearing local unrest. Therefore, sending out summonses is a last resort. They resort to it only when it becomes obvious that the plan will not be fulfilled again and some numbers are urgently needed. And then the tricks begin.

The most common tactic is to hand the person who has responded to the summons a mobilization order and give them a choice: either you go to serve as a "chmobik" (short for "partially mobilized" – Ed.) and receive minimal social guarantees, or sign a voluntary contract and receive substantial one-time payments, and your family will receive a substantial "death benefit" in case of anything. All this is supplemented with stories about minimal risks, the chance to stay in the unit "shuffling papers," and other similar promises.

The basis of monthly recruitment is made up of "anti-social elements." Local police inspectors are obliged to "supply" future contract soldiers from among the population under their jurisdiction. One such inspector told CEMAAT that his personal quota is three people per month, but for some it is significantly higher.

"I saw a news story on TV about how a local police officer went to garbage dumps and politely offered alcoholics to sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense. In fact, there are dozens of ways to create conditions in which these types themselves ask to be transferred to the "contractors" as quickly as possible and without any objections," says the local police officer.

For example, for those suspected of minor crimes, stories about prison "press huts" work well — special cells where torture is used to force prisoners to sign army contracts. The district police officer "secretly" informs the potential recruit that even minor offenses now result in real prison terms, and it is better to sign a contract while you are still a free citizen and hope for some luck than to go to war anyway, but from the prison and guaranteed to be sent to the assault troops, and even become a semi-invalid after being "processed in the press hut."

"There are just drunkhards whose relatives get them drunk to the point of unconsciousness, and in the morning they're already in the army. If they don't have relatives or their relatives don't want that fate for them, every local police officer has the passport details of such alcoholics anyway, so filling out a contract is a matter of minutes. Try proving later that you didn't plan to serve your country. And basically, these are not people capable of resistance. The medical commission, of course, also turns a blind eye to any ailments, the main thing is that they have arms, legs, and a head," says the district police officer.

Another category for active recruitment for the war is teenagers, especially in rural areas where there are no attractive prospects. Human rights activists from the initiative "Tribunal: Crimean Episode," which, among other things, analyzes the participation of residents of the occupied territories in the war on the side of the Russian army, note that they have seen many obituaries for 18-20-year-old Crimeans.

"Among those killed are a dozen conscripts from Crimea, but there are also those who signed contracts and went to war practically straight after school. They are probably attracted by the astronomical sums of money that teenagers can earn in such an 'easy' way, and, of course, the heroic aura created by propaganda. The belief is forming that it is 'not manly' to stay on the sidelines," say human rights activists.

According to their data, recently in Crimea, "career guidance meetings" with representatives of military registration and enlistment offices, military units, and "veterans of the Armed Forces" have become even more frequent for high school students. At these meetings, students are told about the possibility of signing a contract immediately after graduation and that it is not as scary as it may seem. The new school subject "Fundamentals of Security and Defense of the Fatherland" and regular field training exercises with shooting are also successfully brainwashing teenagers.

Such recruitment schemes allow the occupying authorities to recruit new volunteers to go to slaughter almost unnoticed by the general public. Crimeans must live in the belief that the war does not concern them. Until a message arrives on their phone saying, "A summons in your name has been posted in the registry."