Russia is reportedly recruiting Ukrainians from the eastern occupied territories to fight against their own country.

“Young men from the occupied territories of Ukraine were drafted into the Russian army for the first time,” independent Russian outlet iStories posted to Telegram on Wednesday. It cited officials from the occupied regions, as well as state news agency RIA Novosti Crimea, which last week reported on a “ceremonial rally” held in Simferopol, Crimea, celebrating the conscription of new recruits from the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in southern Ukraine.

Newsweek has contacted the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs about the reports.

Now 1,000 days into the conflict, Russia continues to sustain heavy casualties at the hands of Kyiv’s forces, rapidly depleting the manpower needed to sustain the country’s so-called Special Military Operation. Its shrinking pool of troops has compelled Russia to bolster its ranks through other means, including financial incentives, penalties for those avoiding conscription as well as recruitment from foreign armies.