Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ Russian contractors are urgently seeking builders and carpenters to construct trenches and fortified positions in the occupied Crimea. Adverts have appeared on Avito, Russia's equivalent of eBay, offering up to 7,000 rubles ($91) a day for the work – but it can be risky. ⬇️

2/ Many contractors are currently advertising for labourers, carpenters and foremen to work on trench construction around Krasnoperekopsk on the strategic Isthmus of Perekop. This is the main land route into Crimea and has been fortified and fought over for more than 2,000 years.

3/ Russia has recently been building up its fortifications in the area as it prepares for a likely Ukrainian offensive to recapture occupied territory in the south. As @bradyafr has documented below, lines of fortifications have been built on the isthmus. google.com/maps/d/u/0/vie…

4/ The advertisements offer a variety of terms and pay rates – some including accomodation, some not – and offer between 2,000 to 7,000 rubles ($26 to $91) per shift or day. Brigades of up to 50 people are being sought to dig trenches and dugouts, and install wooden shields.

5/ One advert notes that "the scope of work is very large. Work has been underway since early January." Working conditions are strict: "No drinking, no using [drugs] (dismissal without pay!) 18+ [only]."

6/ Workers with experience of constructing trenches elsewhere in occupied Ukraine are offering their services individually or as construction brigades. One advert offers an "assembled brigade (including team leaders, foremen), total 80 people.

7/ With experience in building fortifications in the Zaporizhzhia region, we are ready to carry out work on the territory of the Republic of Crimea with a salary of 50,000 rubles ($653) per shift, we will find housing ourselves, we will provide food ourselves."

8/ Highlighting the scale of the construction effort, Russian companies are also producing prefabricated wooden trench structures and are looking for carpenters. One Leningrad region company says it's making 25-30,000 trench shields a month for 10,200 rubles ($26) each.

9/ However, it's not always the safest work: Ukrainian forces have drone-bombed and shelled excavators digging trenches near the front lines. A number of civilian workers have already been killed and injured.

10/ Many of Russia's construction workers are poor immigrants from Central Asia and Africa. On at least some occasions, they have complained of being tricked into fortification work and of being underpaid or not paid at all.

https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1620452397754748928

11/ On this occasion, at least, the work is being done openly and its location is a long distance from the front lines. But it's another sign of how worried Russia is that Ukraine will attempt to retake the Crimea. /end

Source:
avito.ru/all/rabota?cd=…

threadreaderapp.com/thread/1637805…