Russia continues to advertise and recruit foreign citizens to join the ranks of the Russian army to participate in hostilities in Ukraine.
Russia continues to recruit foreigners for the war against Ukraine
According to intelligence, foreigners are offered to join a "special" unit of the Russian army. They are given a monthly salary of $2,200, a stipend of $2,000, a Russian passport, free medical care and training.
According to British intelligence, in mid-2023, online job advertisements targeting citizens of neighboring countries such as Armenia and Kazakhstan were circulated, with monthly wage offers of $1,973 and benefits of $5,140.
In addition, during 2023, Russia also appealed to Central Asian migrants within Russia. Recently, there were reports that migrants from India and Nepal were recruited and sent to fight in Ukraine.
It is likely that many of those recruited are not professional soldiers, but migrant workers, and have been forced to fight under false pretenses or with the offer of financial incentives, the report said.
The number of foreign citizens in Russia's armed forces will most likely be small, and they will be integrated into regular units rather than into "special" units.
Russia is likely to want to avoid further unpopular internal mobilization measures and, given its significant losses (currently estimated at 913 per day), Russia needs to continue to explore all recruitment options to maintain a high rate of inflows, the British MoD says.
Russia is recruiting mercenaries for the war against Ukraine
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 occupier's 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.
