Since the beginning of the year, 3,344 foreigners who went to war with Ukraine have received Russian citizenship, the Interior Ministry reported . Kremlin propaganda regularly shows stories about so-called volunteers from “friendly” or “neutral” African countries joining the Russian army. Some of them are recruited at universities, others are lured to the front by deception or even blackmail. The Insider spoke with Africans who went to Russia in search of a better life, but ended up in the trenches, and then in Ukrainian captivity. One, as he claims, was given a military contract under the guise of a worker, the second was promised service as a security guard.
“Deportation or a contract with the Ministry of Defense”
Foreigners have been participating in the war in Ukraine on both sides since 2014. According to rough estimates , about two thousand citizens of over 50 countries have fought in the battles in Donbass, with 75% of them fighting on the side of the pro-Russian forces. Most of them were from Belarus (800 people), Germany (160), Georgia (150), Serbia (100) and the United States (30). A significant number of foreign volunteers were part of the so-called International Brigade “Pyatnashka” and the Wagner PMC.
About two thousand citizens from over 50 countries took part in the fighting in Donbass, with 75% of them fighting on the side of pro-Russian forces
In March 2022, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told Vladimir Putin about a “huge number of applications” from volunteers from different countries willing to come to the war against Ukraine. According to him, there were 16,000 such people in the Middle East alone. Putin ordered “to help them move to the combat zone.” As far as could be judged from subsequent explanations , this was about Syrian and possibly other Arab formations (associated with pro-Iranian groups) that took part in the armed conflict in Syria together with the Russian military. The Syrians did indeed enlist in Russian units, though not in the official army, but in the Wagner PMC, and not so much to participate in the Ukrainian war as to support operations in Africa. In July 2022, the European Union imposed sanctions on 10 Syrians involved in organizing the recruitment of Arab mercenaries. News about people from Syria who are being tricked into signing contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense still appears with enviable regularity ( 1 , 2 , 3 ). There are also reports of recruitment into the ranks of the Russian Armed Forces (including fraudulent and blackmailing) of people from Cuba , Somalia , Nepal , India , Sri Lanka and other countries.
In the summer, Bloomberg reported , citing European officials, that Russia was recruiting students and workers from Africa into the army. Kremlin propaganda makes no secret of this: state television channels film reports of foreigners going to war, and photos and videos of them regularly appear on pro-war Telegram channels, where they present themselves as volunteers.
In particular, the Pskov news program Vesti in May 2024 showed a group of foreigners preparing to go to war in Ukraine. Among them was Lamin Jatta, a native of Gambia, who spoke on camera about his love for Russia and his desire to fight for it. However, as his friend told The Insider, Lamin initially flew to Belarus on a student visa in the summer of 2023, but studying was not his goal.
Along with other migrants, he planned to illegally cross the Belarusian-Latvian border to get to Germany or the Netherlands. After an unsuccessful attempt, he went to Russia to earn money, where he was caught in a raid. According to a friend, Lamin was offered a choice: deportation to his homeland or a contract with the Russian Defense Ministry. In August, his family received news of Lamin’s death in the war in Ukraine.
Lamin was offered a choice: deportation to his homeland or a contract with the Russian Defense Ministry. In August, his family received news of Lamin’s death in the war in Ukraine
Lamin is not the only one who came to Belarus or Russia for transit to Europe, but ended up on the front lines in Ukraine. Recruiters of Syrian citizens work according to a similar scheme. The Insider has already reported on one of these front companies . The company of Perm businessman Sergei Merzlyakov and his partner Khaled al-Amiri initially organized flows of refugees from African and Middle Eastern countries in order to provoke a migration crisis at the borders. Now this same infrastructure, as it turns out, is being used to recruit migrants into the army. On social networks, citizens from Arab countries are openly attracted to sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense, promising Russian citizenship and a salary of $2.2 thousand.
The Russian authorities promise various bonuses for mercenary work. According to the decree signed by Vladimir Putin in January 2024, foreigners who have signed a contract for service for at least one year during the “SVO” period can indeed apply for a Russian passport.
How and where foreigners fight
Until now, there has been no evidence in the combat zone of the regular use by the Russian command of any large units staffed by foreign “volunteers” to carry out tasks on the front lines. Apparently, small groups of citizens from distant countries are involved in the rear and only occasionally participate in assaults. This is indirectly indicated by the statistics of losses among foreigners documented on the basis of open source reports.
As of December 2023, there were 254 known foreign citizens who “fought and died in Ukraine as part of Russian formations.” The total confirmed losses in the war at that time were 38,261 people, meaning that foreigners accounted for less than 1%. In addition, the largest number of foreigners killed were citizens of the former Soviet republics: Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Belarus.
Another indirect sign of the minor importance of foreigners for the Russian army directly on the battlefield is the tiny number of prisoners. There are dozens (not hundreds or thousands) of such soldiers in Ukrainian prisoner of war camps, and none of them have been replaced in the last year, since the Russian authorities do not make any relevant requests, and many face criminal prosecution for mercenarism in their homeland.
The first death of a foreign citizen recruited for the war in Ukraine was recorded in September 2022. Lemehani Nathan Nyirenda, a 23-year-old MEPhI student from Zambia, served time in a Russian prison and joined the Wagner PMC there. According to some estimates , in the summer of 2024, there were over 600 servicemen from Africa in the Russian Armed Forces.
In April 2024, the Nepalese government estimated the number of its citizens fighting in Ukraine at 246. By September 2024, at least 40 Nepalese citizens were known to have died, and at least 174 people managed to leave the Russian Armed Forces and return home.
In neighboring India, 91 people had been recruited by September 2024 , nine had already died. It was reported that Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally negotiated with Putin about the dismissal of Indian citizens from the Russian army and their return to their homeland.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, as of September 2024, there are two thousand Syrian mercenaries in the Russian Armed Forces, but the confirmed number of deaths does not exceed 10 people.
Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry said in June 2024 that its Russian counterparts had promised to stop recruiting its citizens to fight in Ukraine. The fighting involved 288 Sri Lankans, with 16 killed.
“The papers were in Russian, I didn’t know what I was signing.”
The Insider’s sources say that foreign mercenaries often end up at the front against their will. Richard from Sierra Leone (a small state in West Africa where seven successful military coups and six unsuccessful ones have taken place over the past fifty years ; a civil war raged in the country in the mid-1990s and early 2000s) came to Russia in November 2023 in search of regular civilian work. In his home country, he served in the armed forces for more than 10 years.
“I dropped out of school at an early age when my father died and I had no relatives to take care of me. To earn money, I joined the army of my country, Sierra Leone. Now I have two children, a boy and a girl. My daughter was always smart and told me she wanted to be a doctor. I told her, ‘Okay, I will try my best to help you achieve your dream.’
Sierra Leone has the lowest salaries not only in Africa, but in the entire world . I saved money for several years and finally found an opportunity to go to Russia on a tourist visa. You could only go to other countries if you had $15-20 thousand, and moving to Russia cost me about half as much — $7,000. I planned to find a job and immediately start sending money to my family.”
Having borrowed money from relatives and collected all his savings, Richard went to get a tourist visa to Guinea, since there is no Russian embassy in his native Sierra Leone. On November 24, 2023, the visa was ready, and Richard flew to St. Petersburg with several transfers. Finding a job in Russia without a work permit and knowledge of the Russian language turned out to be more difficult than Richard expected. After arriving in St. Petersburg, he sat idle and only paid for a hotel and food. A couple of weeks later, Richard decided to contact the travel agent who helped him get a visa so that he could help him find a job. When processing entry documents, an employee of Azimut Tour Service communicated with Richard via instant messengers:
“I was unable to meet him in person even after arriving in St. Petersburg. If I tried to call him directly, he did not answer. It was strange.
The agent said, “I’ll send a taxi, it will take you to a place where a person is waiting for you to fill out the paperwork.” No one asked me whether I wanted to sign a contract for military service or not. The papers were in Russian, and I didn’t understand what was written there. All that was required of me was a signature.
After some time, the agent called back and said, “Hey, Richard, they accepted your contract.” I asked, “What contract?” He said it was a job, but first I would need to go through training to gain experience. I agreed. My contract was accepted on December 7, 2023. On December 10, I was told to take all my things with me, and we left St. Petersburg for Rostov.”
In Rostov-on-Don, Richard was met, put on a bus and taken to an unknown destination.
“The windows were covered with snow and I could hardly see anything outside. I only realized I was on a military base when we got off the bus.”
Richard was told that he would have to undergo two weeks of military training and then go to the combat zone in Donbass.
“They took our documents and phones. A couple of days later they gave me my phone back, and I wrote to the agent: “What am I doing on a military base?” He replied: “Richard, you signed a contract with the army. This is the easiest way to get documents, and they will pay you for signing the contract.” They did not tell me the exact amount of the payment, but they said that my monthly salary would be $2,000. The agent said that after a year of service I would receive citizenship and they would find me a place to live.
I said, “No, that’s not what I want. I don’t want to be in the army because I’ve already served for many years.” He said he couldn’t do anything about it because the contract was already signed. I kept insisting that I didn’t want the contract, and then he blocked my number, I couldn’t contact him anymore.”
“I told the agent I didn’t want the contract and then he blocked my phone number.”
Two weeks later, Richard and his fellow soldiers were transferred to a new location – as it turned out, already on Ukrainian territory.
“I had a Russian friend who spoke a little English. I asked him, ‘Where are we?’ He replied, ‘You’re in Ukraine now.’ I asked, confused, ‘What am I doing here?’ He replied, ‘You don’t know? You signed a contract.’ I was very scared. Training began, and I continued to insist that I did not want to continue serving. The commander then replied that he had no power to cancel the contract.”
At the base in Donetsk, the Russians kept the recruits under strict guard.
“Wherever we went, people with guns followed us. Even to the toilet. Then I learned that many of the Russian soldiers were prisoners who had signed contracts to be released after a year at the front. I thought: why should we be on the same terms? We haven’t been to prison and have no problems with the law, why are we being kept under the same control?”
At first, Richard was allowed to do housekeeping. However, he was then sent to another position where he had to go on the assault.
“Even though we all sign the same contracts, most of the foreigners are sent to the front lines , while the ‘real’ soldiers stay behind, watching and waiting for the moment to take over the position. We were used under this system.
The commander at the next position sent me and two other soldiers to storm some bunker. I asked him how three of us could take a bunker if we were under artillery, tank, and sniper fire, and there were drones above us. He replied that we had to obey orders.
The next morning we moved into position. Before that we had advanced 30, 50, maximum 100 meters, but now we had covered more than 250 meters. But in this last section the Ukrainian forces noticed us.”
“Even though we all signed the same contracts, most of the foreigners were sent to the front lines, while the ‘real’ soldiers were left behind.”
The unit was eventually ambushed, and Richard himself was wounded in the leg. They managed to take refuge in a dilapidated building, where they spent a week without food, water, or communication.
“We had to drink urine because we had no water. There was no communication and no one knew where we were. A drone dropped grenades on us.
Eventually we managed to contact other units. The commander of one of them promised to send us food and water. But no one came. We were evacuated only on the evening of the seventh day.
My wounded leg was very swollen, I had to move without boots, without protective gear, I just followed my squad. The guys were very fast, and I was wounded. At some point, my comrades jumped over the fence, and I fell. Between us there was wire, which is usually used to install mines – sharp as a blade. I tried to remove the wire from my clothes, from my pants, but I couldn’t. I was so exhausted that I just fell and lost consciousness.
After 5-10 minutes, I woke up and looked around, but I didn’t see my squad. And then another grenade was dropped on me from a drone. I was in the epicenter of the explosion and was bleeding, my hand went numb in a matter of seconds. But I kept moving. I prayed, “Please, Lord, forgive my soul, because I didn’t know what I was getting myself into.”
Due to his injury, Richard fell behind his unit and spent the entire night under fire. In the morning, he was found by Ukrainian soldiers:
“They surrounded me, fully armed. I screamed, ‘Don’t shoot, don’t shoot! I’m a Russian soldier, I’m a Russian soldier. Please don’t shoot!’ The commander, who spoke English, said, ‘Come out, but don’t do anything stupid, or you’ll regret it.’ I raised my hands and walked out as best I could.
I remember how they told us that if the Ukrainians caught us, they would kill us like animals. But they promised me medical care. That’s how I ended up in captivity.”
Richard has been in Ukrainian captivity for over 8 months. He admits that he had heard about the war in Ukraine before coming to Russia, but did not understand the essence of the conflict:
“Back home, we watched Al Jazeera, BBC, CNN and watched the war unfold. We heard different versions until I came here to Ukraine. Here, they say they are fighting for their land that Russia has been trying to take from them for over 100 years. I realized I don’t know anything about this war. I don’t know anything about Russia. And I was a fool to follow every order I was given.
I pray that when I am released, I will not end up in war again.
For more than eight months, my family has not known where I am. None of them know that I was captured.”
“A good opportunity to change life from Somali to Russian”
Another interviewee of The Insider, Somali native Adil, also initially went to Russia to earn money. In his native country, Adil worked in a small supermarket. There was always a shortage of money. Somalia has been in a civil war for several decades.
Adil, like many of his compatriots, decided to look for a bigger income abroad. Russia turned out to be the most accessible country.
“In Europe, they refused to give me a visa, tourist or any other, when they saw a Somali passport. But they promised to issue me a visa to Russia in a week. I submitted documents in neighboring Kenya, and they did not delay, they quickly issued me a visa. In August 2023, I flew from Mogadishu to the capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa. Then to Dubai, and then to Moscow. In total, I spent about $3,000 on tickets, hotels and documents. I borrowed the money from relatives.”
Despite the lack of work documents, Adil managed to find a job fairly quickly. However, the salary did not satisfy him.
“In Russia, I got a job at a company that sells winter clothing. They hired me without documents, but they only paid me $200 a month. It wasn’t enough to live on.”
When Adil learned about the possibility of contract service in the Russian army, he was attracted not only by the high salary, but also by Russian citizenship after signing a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense.
“I had Sundays off. I just wandered the streets, seeing how things were set up. Then I started noticing army recruitment ads – they were everywhere. And I thought it was a good opportunity to get documents. I called the number on the ad, and they told me I could apply to serve in the Russian army. I filled out the documents, passed the medical examination, handed in my passport, and I was accepted.
They promised to give me a passport and pay me about $2,000 a month for a year. I thought it was a good opportunity to change my life from Somalia to Russia. At least I could provide my family with a decent life and a bright future.”
Unlike Richard, Adil made a conscious choice, but he claims he was promised a job as a security guard.
“I was told that there is a shortage of security guards in Russia in places like hospitals, banks, shopping malls and the metro. I was told that I would work there, but I would need to undergo training.
I knew nothing about Ukraine and the war – just that one time the Champions League final was in Kyiv. I didn’t discuss with anyone what was happening between Ukraine and Russia. No one sat down with me and said: “I’ll tell you what’s happening on the front line, I’ll tell you about the conflict between these countries.” If someone had explained the situation to me, everything could have turned out differently.”
“I was told that in Russia there is a shortage of security guards in hospitals, banks, the metro, and I will work there.”
In early December 2023, Adil signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense and, like Richard, went to training camp in Rostov-on-Don, and then to the front line in Donbass.
“We were sent from city to city to practice what the military does. No one told me that I was crossing the border into Ukraine and what kind of work I would have to do.
I spent a month and two weeks in Rostov and almost two weeks in Donetsk. After that, I was sent to the front. I was in shock. I had no way to object. Besides, if I had spoken, no one would have understood me. I didn’t understand most of what they said to me either. At that time, the Russian language seemed very difficult to me, and I couldn’t understand what exactly they were saying. They just said, “Go to the front. Go to the front.”
Adil spent only a few days on the front line. He and other soldiers were ambushed and soon had to surrender to the Ukrainians.
“I spent four days on the front line, moving from one shelter to another. After that, I was stuck in a small house with a Russian soldier and couldn’t get out. The Ukrainians found out we were there. Probably with the help of drones.
I didn’t fight. The Russian soldier who was with me didn’t either. Although he was the only one who had a weapon. I lost my rifle on the front line. My comrade spoke to the Ukrainian soldiers in Russian. After that, he gave them his weapon, and that’s how we were captured.”
Now Adil regrets his decision to serve in the Russian army.
“There were a lot of people killed on the front lines. You’re just trying to survive. When someone gets into that situation once, they won’t get into it again as long as they’re sane.”
Although Russia is in no hurry to include Africans in the exchange lists, Adil, like Richard, hopes that he will soon be released from captivity. However, he does not want to return to his homeland in Somalia, where there is also a war going on.
“I have faced war, I have seen war with my own eyes every day. I was a civilian there. If I go back to my country, it will not be a zero start, but a minus start. It is much worse. That is why I do not want to go back to my country.”