The Russian version of "contract soldiers":

Interesting that US media does not pick this up.

A journal in Dagestan called chernovik.net had an article by Ruslan Magomedov dated 22 August titled "Cargo 200," which is the Russian military term for the bodies of those killed in battle. It said that "dozens" of Dagestanis had died in battle who were on contract with the RF Defense Ministry.

How did Dagestani soldiers end up in Ukraine? Their relatives said the officers would make offers to contract soldiers to go to the front:

The offer would be of the voluntary-coercive kind: they are volunteers, but they go, fearing that the army will tear up their contract if they don't. The travel to Ukraine is offered exclusively to contract soldiers, but according to Chernovik's sources, there can also be draftees among them (the latter get contracts signed after a half year of draft service, thus circumventing the formalities).

"Those who refuse may, for example, be brought out on the parade ground and in front of the line-up be accused of cowardice and so on. That is, they put moral pressure on them," a contract soldier who preferred to remain anonymous told Chernovik. Another source claimed that the contract soldiers who were killed in Ukraine are listed in documents as having been killed during training or as having been dismissed, after the fact. So that way it doesn't show up as a loss in battle, and the relatives cannot count on payments from the government or insurance companies.

Sources told Chernovik that the soldiers are on a kind of "shuttle". They repeatedly go in and out of Ukraine. The sources didn't provide names, but said that contract soldiers from the following towns had been killed in artillery fire from the Ukrainian ATO [anti-terrorist operation]: Kazanishche, Atlanaul (a village in Buynaksk District) and Shagad (Khasavyurt District). One other contract soldier from Buynaksk is missing. There are also unconfirmed reports of "Cargo 200" in Kizilyurt, Belidzhi (Derbent District) and Aksay (Khasavyurt District).

Chernovik says that two tank regiments have headed to the Russian-Ukrainian border, and there is also a report of the deployment of Navy contractors from the Caspian Sea.