The prisoners of war come from all corners of the world: Kenya, Nepal, Tajikistan, to title a few. Speaking completely different languages and coming from various cultures, they’ve one factor in frequent – they are saying they had been deceived by Russia into becoming a member of a war they didn’t need to combat.
Nearly 200 foreigners from 37 international locations have been captured combating for Russia and are at present held as prisoners of war by Ukraine, in accordance to the Ukrainian Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War. Their accounts paint a disturbing image of the deception, bribery and blackmail they are saying Moscow is utilizing to lure foreigners into becoming a member of its army.
As Russia continues to struggle to recruit its personal individuals to fight in Ukraine, it’s more and more turning to foreigners to bolster its army.
Brigadier General Dmitry Usov, who heads the POW headquarters, mentioned Ukraine has recognized greater than 18,000 foreigners from 128 international locations and territories who fought or are at present combating for Russia in Ukraine – a quantity that doesn’t embrace the 1000’s of North Korean soldiers despatched to combat for Russia as half of a army cooperation settlement between the 2 international locations. The precise quantity of foreigners combating for Russia is probably going a lot greater.
The rise in the quantity of foreigners discovered combating in Ukraine has lately prompted a number of international locations to difficulty strongly worded appeals to Russia to cease recruiting their residents.
Earlier this month, Kenya’s President William Ruto mentioned that his authorities was involved “over young Kenyans who have been illegally recruited to fight in the war.”
On the identical day, South Africa’s authorities mentioned it could examine how 17 of its residents ended up combating in the war after the boys despatched misery calls for assist to return dwelling from Ukraine’s jap Donbas area, most of which is beneath Russian army management.
A day after that, Randhir Jaiswal, the spokesperson for India’s international ministry, said 44 Indian nationals had been combating for Russia, including that the Indian authorities has “once again taken up the matter with the Russian authorities to have them released at the earliest, and also to put an end to this practice.” He mentioned the Indian authorities had been taking steps to forestall individuals from being “tricked into joining.”
The Ukrainian Defense Intelligence advised NCS the quantity of foreigners discovered on the entrance traces in Ukraine has been rising year-on-year since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in early 2022 however has elevated considerably this yr. The quantity of foreigners taken prisoner by Ukrainian troops in the primary 9 months of this yr was double that of the entire of final yr, which was itself 5 instances the 2023 determine, in accordance to Kyiv.
NCS has requested the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Russian Military for remark, however has obtained no reply. Moscow has beforehand denied coercing foreigners to enlist.
Moscow is combating a brutal, grinding war in Ukraine. Its army continues to inch ahead, most lately in the direction of the jap metropolis of Pokrovsk, however this progress comes at a big value.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine launch casualty knowledge, however Moscow stopped publishing even essentially the most fundamental mortality and demographic knowledge earlier this yr, almost certainly to disguise the actual value of the war, analysts say.
But Western intelligence businesses consider Russia has suffered more than 1 million casualties, together with greater than 250,000 deaths, since February 2022. In its most up-to-date estimate, the United Kingdom’s Defence Intelligence mentioned that, on common, some 1,000 Russian troopers are killed or injured on daily basis.
This astonishingly excessive casualty charge leaves Russia in want of a fixed provide of new manpower – at a time when all indicators level to the truth that the quantity of Russian residents prepared to enlist is plummeting.
The Kremlin is cautious of calling for one other mobilization after the fiasco of the September 2022 partial mobilization, which spooked a whole bunch of 1000’s of Russian males into fleeing the nation. At the identical time, Russia is going through huge demographic pressures – the United Nations tasks that Russia’s inhabitants might drop by between 25% and 50% by 2100.
Many Russian areas, making an attempt to attain their Kremlin-mandated recruitment targets, have dramatically elevated the quantity of cash they pay to new army recruits. Analysts say this is a sign that “ideological” recruitment campaigns are not sufficient to inspire Russians to combat in Ukraine.
The presence of foreigners alongside the entrance traces in Ukraine is just not a secret. Ukraine has been recruiting international volunteers for the reason that starting of the war, even forming particular models for them. Kyiv doesn’t disclose details about foreigners in its ranks, however their numbers are possible working into the 1000’s – regardless of many international locations, together with the United Kingdom and many European international locations, particularly warning their residents towards signing up.
The distinction, in accordance to the Ukrainians, in an evaluation backed by human rights watchdogs, is that whereas these combating for Ukraine have almost certainly made their choice independently and willingly, many of the foreigners in Russia’s ranks haven’t.
Ukrainian Defense Intelligence officers advised NCS that Russia’s international recruitment techniques boil down to three approaches: blackmail, bribery and deception.
Russian visas, residence permits and the promise of Russian citizenship – or the risk of these being stripped away – have turn out to be key instruments for Russia because it tries to recruit extra fighters.
According to the Ukrainian Defense Intelligence officers, migrants to Russia from central Asian international locations, comparable to Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, are almost certainly to enlist for migration causes.
The Kremlin has lately made it simpler for foreigners to get visas and Russian passports in alternate for army service. Meanwhile, final yr, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a legislation that makes it potential for naturalized Russian residents to be stripped of their citizenship in the event that they fail to register for army service.
According to human rights teams, together with Memorial, the Russian rights watchdog which was banned in Russia in December 2021, on the eve of the invasion of Ukraine, fighters from central Asian international locations typically say they had been threatened with imprisonment and deportation until they agreed to enlist. Ukrainian protection intelligence confirmed this.
Russia is just not denying this apply. Alexander Bastrykin, the chairman of Russia’s Investigative Committee, mentioned in May that Russian authorities had already “caught” 80,000 lately naturalized Russian residents who had been avoiding army registration, Russian media group RBC reported. He mentioned that 20,000 of these new Russian residents from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan had been now on the entrance traces.
While many foreign-born males are being coerced into the army whereas already in Russia, many others seem to have been introduced into the nation in order to serve.
According to the data warfare analysis group OpenMinds, the quantity of commercials selling contract army service that particularly goal foreigners has risen greater than sevenfold since this summer time.
OpenMinds’ new evaluation of content material on Russia’s hottest social community VKontakte confirmed that, by mid-2025, one in three posts promoting army contracts was geared toward foreigners, in contrast to simply 7% of all adverts simply a yr in the past.
The provides typically embrace assurances that recruits is not going to be despatched to assault models and can be assigned to particular positions with decrease danger to their lives, OpenMinds mentioned.
The knowledge, shared solely with NCS, reveals that about half of the adverts goal Russian-speaking foreigners from post-Soviet international locations, whereas the remainder are geared toward African nations, India, Bangladesh, Iraq, Yemen and others. Only a small proportion of the adverts – about one sixth – makes no point out of a particular nation.
OpenMinds mentioned that whereas curiosity in army contracts was minimal amongst foreigners in the early years of the full-scale war, knowledge from the Russian-language search engine Yandex reveals that the share of searches on army contracts in post-Soviet international locations elevated tenfold in 2024 and continued to develop in 2025.
The messaging varies relying on the target market.
OpenMinds mentioned that many of the Russian-language commercials promise social and monetary advantages in addition to help with acquiring a Russian passport.
Social media posts circulating in China earlier this yr promised good pay and promoted a sure picture of masculinity, with slogans like “Be a real man!”
One Telegram channel seen by NCS targets Arabic audio system, promising would-be mercenaries fast-track Russian visas, salaries of round $2,000 to $2,500 a month, free healthcare and an all-expenses-paid way of life. The channels point out fighters from Morocco, Jordan, Iraq, Algeria and Syria as being fascinating recruits.
A Russian army contract signed by a Chinese nationwide and seen by NCS consists of some of these perks, comparable to a promise that the soldier can have entry to free schooling after three years of service and that their “meals, attire and other supplies” can be paid for by Russia.
In alternate, the soldier who signed the contract agreed to “participate in combat, fulfill duties during the mobilization period, during emergencies and martial law, armed conflicts, participate in activity to keep and restore international peace and security or top international terrorist activity outside the territory of the Russian Federation.”
The Ukrainian officers who spoke with NCS in regards to the difficulty mentioned that some of the foreigners who had been captured by Ukraine mentioned they had been made to sign contracts in Russian with out understanding what was in them and with no translation offered.
Prisoners of war who spoke to Ukrainian investigators mentioned their fight coaching lasted from one to two weeks, after which they had been despatched to the entrance traces, the place they’d typically finish up being half of the assault models pressured to storm Ukrainian positions, regardless of the massive dangers. The demise toll is staggering – Usov mentioned that of the greater than 18,000 foreigners Ukraine was in a position to determine, at the least 3,388 have been killed.
The Ukrainian authorities has launched a particular initiative geared toward foreigners combating for Russia and different reluctant Russian recruits, providing them a protected haven and prisoner of war standing in the event that they give up. Pages on this system’s website will be learn in English, Russian, Spanish and Arabic.
While some of the commercials are comparatively clear in regards to the jobs which are on supply – the advertisements embrace pictures of Russian assault models and fight troopers – others usually are not.
The Ukrainian Defense Intelligence officers advised NCS some of the prisoners of war advised Ukrainian investigators that they got here to Russia after being promised jobs in building, in warehouses, as safety guards or as drivers. They mentioned this expertise was most frequently described by prisoners from far-flung, lower-income international locations like Sri Lanka, Cuba, Nepal, and some African nations.
Kenya’s international ministry issued a assertion earlier this month, saying it had uncovered a human trafficking operation that was recruiting Kenyans to be shipped into fight beneath the guise of abroad jobs. It mentioned that different Kenyan nationals who had been rescued from Russia mentioned they had been misled in regards to the nature of the work they’d be doing and ended up in harmful jobs, together with assembling drones and dealing with chemical compounds.
Also final month, Cuba’s foreign ministry said that after discovering out in 2023 that its residents had been combating in Ukraine, it had launched a crackdown on the recruitment and human trafficking networks accountable. It mentioned that 26 individuals have already been convicted, with a number of different trials nonetheless pending.
Last yr, Sri Lanka’s authorities held a collection of top-level conferences with Russian officers particularly to tackle the problem of Sri Lankan residents being recruited to combat in the war.
Nepal has mentioned scores of its residents had been recruited beneath false pretenses to be part of Russia’s war effort and has referred to as on Moscow to cease the apply. Last yr, Nepal went so far as banning its residents from travelling to Russia or Ukraine for employment.
Brigadier General Dmitry Usov, who heads Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, mentioned this week that the transfer had labored.
“In 2023–2024, almost 1,000 citizens of Nepal signed a contract with the Russian army. In 2025, as of October 1, only one person from this country joined the Russian army,” he mentioned.