Enlarge / Cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveyev, and Sergey Korsakov pose with a flag of the Luhansk People's Republic on the International Space Station. (credit: Roscosmos)
A new report in the Financial Times appears to confirm that the main Russian space corporation, Roscosmos, is recruiting and training a militia to join the country's war effort against Ukraine.
The "Uran" battalion, which translates to Uranus, is to be made up of employees of Roscosmos, as well as those from its dozens of state-owned subsidiaries in the aerospace business. Recruits will receive a 100,000 ruble ($1,200) sign-up bonus, and a monthly frontline duty salary of 270,000 rubles, according to the report. This is far above the wages paid to most employees of Roscosmos.
Among the recruitment efforts are glossy posters, showing soldiers Photoshopped next to space vehicles, and videos that aggrandize participation in the war. In one of these advertisements, the announcer states, "State corporation Roscosmos calls on you to join the Uran volunteer battalion, where you will be trained for victory in this great war." The report indicates that these recruitment videos are playing in the facilities of some Roscosmos entities, where there are 170,000 employees spread across Russia.
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