Desperate Vladimir Putin has ordered Russian army recruiters in St Petersburg to get homeless men on the frontlines in Ukraine as they struggle to boost their military.
As the war shows no signs of abating, but Russia continues to lose manpower, Russian President Vladimir Putin is scrambling to replace the dead troops with fresh power for its army.
He has already raised the minimum age for recruits and turned to Russia's prison population in a bid to mobilise troops.
Now, the Nochlezhka charity has said, officials are targetting its homeless shelters in a central district of St Petersburg on the Baltic sea.
An unnamed source from charity Nochlezhka told the Rotunda news service: “[A recruiter] offered to hand out leaflets explaining that men were to be called to serve under contracts.
"The duty officer [at the shelter] did not allow the leaflets to be handed out.”
Rotunda said that officials at the city administration had confirmed that a recruiter had been trying to enlist from the city’s homeless population.
Charity spokeswoman Tatyana Bazhenova said that Nochlezhka will not help Putin's recruiters bolster their ranks with people from her shelters, she told the Bumaga news channel.
The Russian Defence Ministry has previously denied that any “mobilisation activities” are taking place but after losing around 70,000 troops in the conflict, Putin recently signed a decree to increase the Russian armed forces' military personnel to more than 1.15 million.
This came as the British Ministry of Defence said in its defence update on Sunday that the decree is unlikely to "make substantive progress towards increasing Russia's combat power in Ukraine."
They are now offering signing-on bonuses of around £5,000 and relying on the Wagner mercenary group to fill huge gaps in its frontline.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, a close associate of Putin, has reportedly recruited almost 1,000 inmates and promised them early release if they fight in Moscow's war against Ukraine.
The Vot Tak television channel quoted inmates at a penal colony in the city of Bataisk, in Rostov Oblast, on September 1 as saying that Mr Prigozhin recently arrived by helicopter and promised that anyone who joined the Russian armed forces in Ukraine will get an early release.
He also said inmates "can do anything they want with the Ukrainians."
Radio Free Europe says around 700 inmates agreed to join the Russian armed forces.
