Residents of the Russian-recognized People's Republic of Donetsk have been receiving text messages offering them work as prison guards to oversee the large number of Ukrainian soldiers captured in nearby fighting.

The messages from the region's justice department were received and verified by CGTN reporter Aljosa Milenkovic while he was reporting from the area.

They offer "a good salary and full social benefits" and encourage recipients to call for more information.

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It's not clear how many prisoners each side has taken but hundreds of fighters, many of them wounded, were transferred to pro-Russian areas in eastern Ukraine after surrendering following months of fighting at the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol last week.

The economy of the two regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, which broke away from Kyiv in 2014 following the fall of Ukraine's pro-Russian government suffered as links with the rest of the country were severed. 

Years of fighting have also harmed the manufacturing heartlands in the predominantly Russian-speaking area. Moscow has said its primary objective in this phase of the conflict is to secure control of the Donbas region, with Ukraine acknowledging that up to 100 of its troops are dying every day defending the parts it still holds.