Any fighters willing to rise to the occasion?
Russia’s Wagner mercenary group is so hard-pressed to replenish its ranks depleted by months of bloody battles in Ukraine that it has turned to Pornhub to recruit soldiers.
The private army, founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has placed a highly suggestive ad on the popular porn site, urging male viewers to stop pleasuring themselves and instead apply for a job at Wagner.
In the commercial, a blonde woman wearing red lipstick is seen twirling an oversized lollipop in her mouth, while a husky female voice purrs in the background: “we are the f–king coolest private army in the world.”
“We are recruiting fighters from all regions of Russia.
“Don’t whack off, go work for PMC Wagner.”
Then a phone number appears on the screen, which is said to be associated with Wagner Group recruiters.
The Ukrainian news outlet Ukrainskaya Pravda, which reported on the story, said that the video has been shared on Telegram channels by people living in the Kemerovo and Volgograd regions of Russia.
It’s unclear how many times the ad has been viewed on Pornhub, nor how long it has been up on the site.
Prigozhin has been working overtime to sign up new recruits for his notoriously brutal paramilitary group, which has sustained colossal losses while trying to capture the key city of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine — an area that has come to be known by both sides as a “meat grinder” due to the high death toll there.
Last week, the Russian catering mogul, once dubbed “Putin’s chef,” announced the opening of 42 outreach centers throughout Russia.
There were subsequent reports saying that masked Wagner Group members have been visiting schools in Moscow to deliver “career talks” and take down students’ contact information.
A few months into the war, Wagner had signed up as many as 40,000 inmates from Russia’s prisons, offering them a pardon if they survived six months on the front lines.
Last month, Prigozhin pulled the plug on recruiting convicts while publicly feuding with Russia’s military brass about the supply of munitions.
According to a recent intelligence update from the UK Ministry of Defense, about half of the prisoners Wagner has deployed have likely become casualties in Ukraine.
A White House estimate from February put the number of Wagner fighters killed or injured since the start of the invasion in Feb. 2022 at more than 30,000.
