According to the ‘I Want to Live’ project, since 2022 almost 29,000 foreigners have signed contracts with the Russian armed forces. For 2026 alone, Russia’s Ministry of Defence planned to recruit a further 18,500 foreign nationals.
As the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War reported, as of September 2026 Russian prisoners of war include citizens of 55 countries worldwide. One in ten Russian occupying troops held as prisoners of war in Ukraine is a citizen of another country.
Above all, Russians recruit people from the poorest sections of the population, promising high pay and easy work. Instead, once they sign a contract, they are sent into meat-grinder assaults on the most dangerous sections of the front line.
Thanks to diplomatic pressure, media coverage of the recruitment, and countermeasures by other governments, Russia has suspended the recruitment of citizens from 39 countries. These include China, India, Egypt, Kenya, Pakistan, Ghana and a number of other states in Africa and Asia.
However, Moscow has not abandoned the practice of recruiting foreigners, and countries in South America, Central Asia and Africa are now being used more actively. This is confirmed not only by recruitment data, but also by the number and geography of foreign prisoners of war. In the first nine months of 2026, more foreigners were taken prisoner by Ukraine than in the whole of 2025.
They include citizens of Argentina, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Honduras, Vietnam, Mongolia and many other countries.
Ukraine is urging governments around the world and international organisations to step up efforts to counter Russian recruitment, identify recruiters and intermediaries, cut off channels used to draw foreigners into the Russian army, and inform their citizens about the real consequences of such ‘contracts’.
- Russian recruiters are making widespread use of platforms Meta, Google and other Western digital resources to recruit foreigners for the war against Ukraine.