As of 1 October this year, the “I Want to Live” project had identified 45,959 foreign nationals from 151 countries and unrecognised territories who signed contracts with Russia’s armed forces.
This was reported by Dmytro Usov, secretary of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, during the international conference Crimea Global. Understanding Ukraine through the South.
The updated figures show a sharp rise in the scale of recruitment. While in 2022 the Russians enlisted only 94 foreigners, in 2023 that number rose to 4,067 people, in 2024 to 8,877, and in 2025 reached 16,085. In the first nine months of this year alone, Russia recruited 16,168 foreign nationals, surpassing the total for the whole of last year.
The Coordination Headquarters noted that the Russian side had planned to bring in 18,500 foreigners in 2026, recruiting around 1,800 people each month. Maintaining this pace would allow the plan to be exceeded as early as November, and by the end of the year the number of new foreign contract soldiers could reach 21,500.
The largest numbers of foreigners are being recruited by the Russians from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Belarus, while the fastest growth rates are being recorded by countries in Africa and Latin America. In particular, over nine months of 2026, contracts were signed by 1,449 Colombian nationals, 699 from Burundi, 530 from Zimbabwe and 503 from Peru.
Since 2022, representatives of 59 countries worldwide have been taken prisoner by Ukraine. Surveys of prisoners of war showed that almost half of them signed a contract in order to obtain a Russian passport. More than 41% of respondents went through Russian military enlistment offices and selection centres, confirming the direct involvement of Russian state structures in recruitment. Almost 80% of foreign prisoners want to return to Russia during exchanges.
The Coordination Headquarters stressed that Russia lures foreigners with money and citizenship to take part in assaults, and after they are captured leaves them to fend for themselves.