The head of the Investigative Committee of Russia, Aleksandr Bastrykin, said that the authorities sent at least 10,000 migrants to the war in Ukraine.
Points of attention
- The Russian authorities sent at least 10,000 migrants to the war in Ukraine, in particular to build fortifications on the front line.
- Russia also recruits mercenaries from other countries, such as Nepal and Somalia, citing financial motives for participating in the war.
- Raids by Russian law enforcement officers on enterprises with migrants testify to systematic attempts to register them in the military register for participation in the war against Ukraine.
Moscow sent 10,000 immigrants to the war against Ukraine
As Bastrykin reported, investigators "have already caught more than 30,000 such citizens who have received citizenship, but do not want to register for the military, and put them on the register."
About 10,000 of them have already been sent to the zone of a special military operation, Bastrykin said, using a wording common among Russian officials to describe the war.
He also reported that the immigrants were allegedly sent to serve in the rear units, which were engaged in constructing fortifications.
They tell us: "why are they (migrants — ed.) needed there, these comrades?" To dig trenches and build fortifications requires really good working hands. Today they are replenishing the ranks of our rear units, — said Bastrykin.
Earlier, the Russian publication "Meduza" noted that Russian law enforcement officers regularly raid enterprises where migrants work, particularly from Central Asia.
As a rule, their targets are men who have recently received Russian citizenship but have not registered for the military. They are trying to send such men to war in Ukraine.
Russia recruits mercenaries in various countries
In the summer of 2023, it became known that residents of Nepal who came to the Russian Federation to study were being recruited for the war against Ukraine. The main argument for making such a decision is money.
In December, Nepal issued an official statement calling on Moscow to stop recruiting its citizens for the war and to return the bodies of those who had already died.
A mercenary of the Russian army from Somalia, Muhammad Adil, was captured by the Armed Forces of Ukraine at the beginning of January 2024. Online.ua journalists managed to ask the captured foreigner why he came to Russia, how he got into the occupying army, how much he trained before he got to the front line, and which of his decisions he regrets.
After arriving in the Russian Federation, he got a job at a factory but soon saw an advertisement for the Russian army on the street and signed a contract on December 3, 2023.
In less than a month, already on January 4, 2024, he found himself on the front line on the territory of Ukraine.
