Putinʼs United Russia party created its own private army and began recruiting for it. It is called "PMC Espanyola".
This was reported by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
The formation of "Espanyola" was previously part of the structure of the so-called "Vostok" battalion as a volunteer unit of Russian football hooligans. Ukrainian troops have already met with them in battles, in particular, 3 separate assault brigades.
From 2023, according to the GUR, "Espanyola" was taken over by Putinʼs partisans. The unit declared the status of a private military company and started active recruiting with party money. Football "ultras", Russian radicals, ordinary civilians from the impoverished regions of the Russian Federation and the occupied territories of Ukraine are recruited into the PMC — the latter are used in "meat" assaults.
In recruiting centers operating in the occupied territories, volunteers are promised 220,000 rubles (91,500 hryvnias) per month for participating in the battles. The contract is for at least half a year. They also lure with "insurance payments" — one million rubles (416 thousand hryvnias) for a light injury, 2 million rubles (832 thousand hryvnias) for a medium one, 3 million rubles (1.2 million hryvnias) for a severe one and 5 million rubles (2 million hryvnias) for death.
However, GUR notes that financial motivation serves only as a "wrapper" — for most, the first battle 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 are registered as "missing" in order not to pay compensation to the relatives for the death of the breadwinner sent by Moscow to the death," the GUR noted.