Ukraine's army brigades battle to make enlisting 'sexy'

The billboard showing an elegant young woman wrapped around a man on a motorcycle, pistol in hand, looks more like a perfume ad than a military campaign.

But the huge poster hanging over Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine has a high-stakes pitch -- to recruit more men into a Ukrainian military desperately short of manpower to fight the Russian invasion.

Unlike many countries, Ukraine allows its army brigades to recruit soldiers directly, meaning each military unit can compete for donations and troops using social media and, increasingly, advertising.

Emblazoned with the words "I love the Third Assault Brigade", the poster in Kharkiv is one of several privately commissioned adverts relying on macho imagery and models to reach its target audience.

"It makes service look sexy," said Volodymyr Degtyarov, the acting PR head for Ukraine's Khartiya Brigade.

"No other brigade has ever done anything that brave in terms of outreach," the 44-year-old added.

The stakes are high.

Ukraine has ceded dozens of towns and villages to advancing Russian forces in recent months, its overstretched troops grappling with exhaustion and a shortage of manpower.

Thousands of soldiers have been fighting without a break since Russia invaded more than two and a half years ago, and Kyiv is desperate to exchange them for new men.

Degtyarov said he was "slightly jealous" of the Third Assault Brigade's efforts.

"They target a younger audience and say: 'Come join us and women will love you.'"

- 'Healthy competition' -

Despite moves to tighten mobilization rules in the spring, Ukraine is still vastly outnumbered by Russia on the battlefield.

Kyiv now allows brigades to bypass draft centers altogether and seek out their own men.

The result has been an explosion of adverts, posters and social media posts attracting thousands of views as each brigade jockeys for influence.

For Degtyarov, who ran a PR agency before the invasion, this means "very good, healthy competition", with victory being the common goal.

The ads give each brigade an opportunity to distinguish itself with a "personality" and a "brand" image, he said.

Degtyarov's own brigade seeks to stand out by offering an attractive salary, targeting a "slightly older" and experienced audience.

Ivan, head of communications for the Aidar Battalion, said his military unit's selling point was its "modern" equipment, better than the old Soviet-era weaponry often wheeled out to the front.

The 28-year-old soldier in the Donetsk region said he preferred to be "honest" in his marketing -- without playing too much on "emotions" to attract applicants.

The Third Assault Brigade's slick publicity campaign has come under a lot of criticism in Ukraine, in part because it has been seen as painting war in a glamorous light.

But for some, the need to recruit men overshadows all other considerations.

"All methods are good," said Yuriy, a man in his fifties whom AFP met in the streets of Kyiv.

"If a young man is attracted to a photo of a soldier with a beautiful woman, he will imagine himself in his place," he said.

- 'We can show everything' -

It is difficult to gauge how effective these campaigns have been.

Degtyarov said they were essential.

"There are 150 brigades in Ukraine. And if you go and talk to people, they will name up to 10, maybe 15," he said.

The Khartiya Brigade claimed that when it stepped up advertising, the number of potential candidates reaching out increased.

The military unit receives discounts for advertising space in town, as well as from marketing agencies.

Ivan, from the Aidar Battalion, uses social networks to promote his military unit.

His preferred platform is Facebook, where the battalion has 172,000 subscribers.

Telegram is also popular, in part due to what has been described as its lax moderation policy. Some brigades have used the platform to share images of Russian soldiers being tracked down and killed by drones.

On Telegram "we can show everything", Ivan said, complaining that some of his videos had been deleted on other platforms.

Ivan was a space engineer before the war.

"I never worked with social media before," he said. "I just know how to build rockets."