How Russia is luring foreign nationals to fight in Ukraine

Charles Mutoka, a 72-year-old Kenyanis in mourning for his son, Oscar Khagola Mutoka, a former soldier who traveled to Russia in the summer of 2025 to look for work.

His father said that he had tried in vain to talk him out of it. Oscar did not tell him and the rest of his family exactly where he was going but a week after leaving he sent a picture of himself in uniform and never got back in touch again.

His family found out that he had died some time later but, despite appeals to the Kenyan authorities, they were not able to recover the body. 

In May 2026, the family held a symbolic memorial service and set up a makeshift burial site for Oscar, in order to at least have a place where they could pray. “The worst part is that I don’t know if and where he was actually buried, or if his body was simply dumped in a forest in Russia,” Charles Mutoka said.

Oscar Mutoka is one of an estimated 27,000 or more foreign nationals recruited by Russia for its war in Ukraine,according to the Defense Intelligence ofUkraine (HUR). A joint study conducted by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the Truth Houndshuman rights organization and the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law (KIBHR) provides evidence that Russia has set up a global network for recruiting foreign nationals.

“This recruitment targets people in economically, socially and legally precarious life situations. The methods employed range from enticing offers to deception and even coercion,” Ilya Nusov, one of the authors of the study, told DW.

‘I don’t want to starve to death in Cuba’

For many people living in the world’s poorest regions, the wages offered by the Russian army is a huge incentive as it means a chance to escape poverty and support their families. That’s exactly why Yoan Viondi Mendoza, a Cuban national, decided to work in Russia. He was promised $2,000 (€1,750) per month, an enormous sum by Cuban standards, where the average wage is $20 (€17,50). 

DW found out about Yoan Mendoza’s story from his brother Michael Duro, who lives in the US. Yoan had wanted to emigrate to the US and be reunited with his brother, but this turned out to be impossible, because of financial and bureaucratic hurdles.

Then he came across a job offer in Russia, his brother said. “Yoan called and said he’d found a way out. He told me about a ‘project’ in Russia,” said Duro, who told DW that he had tried in vain to change his brother’s mind.

In September 2023, the Reuters news agency filmed young Cubans who wanted to go to Russia, including Yoan Mendoza who was 23 at the time. He told journalists that he knew exactly where he was going and that he did not want to starve to death in Cuba. He also showed a document that was purportedly a contract with the Russian army, which would also give him Russian citizenship.

Duro said that his brother was sent to the front in Ukraine and then tried to escape. “He pleaded, ‘I made a mistake. Forgive me. Please get me out of here quickly,'” Diro said, adding that afterwards there was no contact. Yoan’s name later surfaced on the lists of foreign nationals killed in action that were published by Ukraine.

‘They used us as human shields’

Though Mendoza and Oscar Mutoka probably knew that they were going to Russia to fight in the Ukraine war, many other foreign nationals are being deceived to the front after being promised jobs in construction, security, logistics or agriculture.

That’s what happened to Arman Mondol from Bangladesh. He wanted to work abroad to lift his family out of poverty. His father, a farmer, sold some property and took out a loan to pay a recruiter. Mondol was told that he would be working as a packer in a warehouse. Equipped with a tourist visa, he traveled via Saudi Arabia to Russia, where he was then forced to sign a contract in Russian, which he could not read.

Mondol said that he and other foreign nationals had been treated badly in the Russian army. “When we were on a mission, they always sent us ahead while they remained behind us. They used us as human shields and pushed us into the thick of the fighting,” he told DW.

During one of those missions, his vehicle hit a landmine. He was one of only two survivors and was taken to a military hospital, from where he managed to escape. In the end , the Bangladeshi embassy in Moscow helped him to return home, but the war continues to haunt him.

“I still have these images in my mind — dying people, their eyes, their disfigured faces. How they get blown up by landmines. How there was one drone attack after the next. How people’s limbs were torn off. It was horrible,” Mondol, who still has shrapnel in one leg and has a heavy limp, recalled. Back in his village, he has not found work.

Mercenaries or human trafficking?

Foreign nationals fighting for Russia in Ukraine are often called mercenaries. However, Ilya Nusov explained that, strictly speaking, this isn’t what they are according to international law, since often people adopt Russian citizenship before joining the army.

While others had no intention of fighting in the first place. They could be considered the victims of human trafficking, if they are recruited on false premises and coerced. This violates the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, and the Palermo Protocol, which bans human trafficking and has been ratified by most countries in the world, including Russia.

Russia has insisted that all foreign nationals partaking in the “special military operation,” as it calls its war in Ukraine, are involved on a voluntary basis. In March, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed during a press conference with his Kenyan counterpart that “no one is being hired, just as no one is being recruited in the case of the special military operation. Volunteers get there in full compliance with Russian legislation.” 

DW asked the Russian Foreign Ministry for a statement but had not received a response by the time of publication.

Increasing number of recruited foreign nationals

The involvement of foreign nationals in the war is receiving increased attention, with their families protesting from  Nepal to Peru. Some politicians, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have even brought up the subject in meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to media reports, Russia restricted the recruitment of citizens from various “friendly” countries in February 2026. A list of those countries has not been published.

“In some cases, this has contributed to reducing or even stopping the influx of fighters from certain countries at least temporarily,” said Nusov. “But we believe that Russia also has ways to circumvent this by reducing recruitment in one place and focusing on a different country.” According to Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, Russia could recruit up to 18,500 foreign nationals in 2026.

Benjamin Alvarez Gruber, Nahid Anjuman, Felix Maringa contributed to this article, which was originally published in Russian.