Russian President Vladimir Putin is asking employers to guarantee employment for men who “volunteer” to fight in Ukraine amid a shortage of troops in the Russian army, writes The Moscow Times.

Putin promised to ask the government to adopt such a provision after receiving complaints that some employers had threatened to fire employees who took extended leave during the fighting in Ukraine, said Dmytro Peskov, a spokesman for the Russian president.

The promise was given to an employee of the Ministry of Emergency Situations in the Far East, who was allegedly refused to return to work after fighting at the front, said Peskov.

“Putin promised this employee that he would draw the government’s attention to the gap in Russian legislation,” Peskov said, adding that “the legislation must be brought into line with the actual situation.”

Russian deputies also raised the issue of job retention, noting that there were cases of dismissal of employees who went to fight in the Russian army.

“I consider it correct to develop amendments to the Labor Code regarding the protection of the rights of volunteers,” People’s Deputy Oleksandr Khinshtein wrote in Telegram.

He stated that the Russian Ministry of Defense supported his proposal and that after the end of the parliamentary recess, he would introduce a law that would guarantee the right of volunteers to keep their jobs.

The Kremlin has refused to announce a general mobilization, despite a reduction in Russian advances in Ukraine and reports of heavy military casualties. Instead, he tried to attract more people to the front by conscripting prisoners and lowering training requirements or offering large enlistment bonuses, The Moscow Times reports.

Russian investigative journalists wrote from the beginning of July that Wagner’s mercenary group began recruiting convicts from Russian prisons for the war in Ukraine, promising them money and pardons.

Also in July, Wagner’s group, which the Kremlin has always denied was working for the Russian state before the start of the war in Ukraine, also began recruiting in the former Soviet states of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

Recently, “Novaya Gazeta” wrote that employees of the administration of the Frunzen district of St. Petersburg tried to recruit homeless people for the war in Ukraine.

According to the estimates of the Ukrainian army, from the moment of the February 24 invasion, the Russian army would have lost more than 50,000 soldiers.

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