From job offers to the front line: How Russia recruits foreigners to fight in Ukraine
Kenyan athlete Evans Kibet says he traveled to Russia expecting to take part in a cultural event where he would share his experience in sports training. Instead, he ended up in the Russian military.
According to Kibet, he was asked to sign documents in Russian, a language he did not understand. He later discovered that he had signed a military contract.
His story, told in hromadske's documentary Predatory Recruitment: Evans' Story, illustrates one of the methods used to draw foreign nationals into Russia's war against Ukraine: offers of employment, education or other opportunities that can lead to military service.
Ukrainian authorities say they have identified nearly 49,000 foreign nationals from 59 countries who signed contracts with Russia's armed forces. Some joined knowingly. Others say they were deceived, pressured or prevented from leaving.
The distinction matters - both for understanding how Russia replenishes its military and for determining who may bear responsibility for abuses in the recruitment process.
From civilian opportunities to military contracts
Recruitment methods vary.
Some foreign nationals are offered jobs as security guards, drivers, cooks, construction workers or logistics personnel. Others are invited to cultural events, sports programs or educational institutions.
Recruitment agencies and local brokers can arrange visas, travel and paperwork, then accompany candidates to locations where contracts are signed.
In some cases, recruits say the military nature of the arrangement was concealed until they reached Russia. Others knew they were signing up for military service but say they did not understand the terms or what deployment would involve.
Human rights and international advocacy expert Maria Tomak describes such practices as "predatory recruitment" when they involve deception, coercion or exploitation of vulnerable circumstances.
She says intermediaries can make it harder to establish who is responsible. Some recruits report having their passports or phones confiscated, their movements restricted or their promised payments withheld. Those who try to leave may face threats.
But not every foreign national serving in Russia's military was tricked into joining. Some deliberately seek military contracts for higher wages, Russian citizenship or a chance to settle in the country.
Nearly 49,000 recruits identified
According to Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, the number of foreign nationals signing Russian military contracts has risen sharply.
Ukrainian records identify 94 such contracts in 2022, 4,067 in 2023, 8,877 in 2024 and 16,085 in 2025.
In the first nine months of 2026 alone, the figure reached 16,168 - already exceeding the total for all of last year.
Andrii Yusov, deputy head of the Coordination Headquarters, said Russia appears to be targeting approximately 18,500 foreign recruits annually, a figure he expects it to exceed.
Recruits most frequently come from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Belarus and Kazakhstan, according to Ukrainian data. However, recruitment from Africa and Latin America is growing.
During the first nine months of 2026, Ukrainian authorities recorded contracts involving 1,449 Colombian nationals, 699 people from Burundi, 530 from Zimbabwe and 503 from Peru.
The figures do not establish how many joined voluntarily or under coercion. Nor do they represent the number of foreign nationals currently serving in Russia's military.
They do, however, illustrate how widely Russia's recruitment efforts extend beyond its borders.
Families demand answers
In Kenya, the issue has become a matter of public concern.
According to Kenyan media reports, families of men who traveled to Russia have demanded information about missing and deceased relatives, as well as explanations of how they ended up fighting in Ukraine.
Kenya's The Standard reported on October 27 that families were pressing President William Ruto for answers ahead of a Russia–Africa summit.
The issue has also been raised in Kenya's parliament.
Families want authorities to investigate recruitment intermediaries, determine what happened to their relatives and establish who should be held accountable for possible deception.
For people who believed they were accepting civilian employment, the consequences can be especially severe. Once in a foreign country, without local-language skills or access to their documents, they may have little practical ability to refuse a military contract or leave.
Human rights groups document coercion
In April 2026, Ukrainian human rights organization Truth Hounds, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights published research based on interviews with prisoners of war.
The organizations described a recruitment system extending across Asia, Africa and Latin America, using promises of well-paid civilian work, Russian citizenship and other benefits.
Their findings pointed to the involvement of Russian state structures and concluded that some recruitment practices showed signs of human trafficking.
"Many of these people understood what they were agreeing to. But some were deceived or forced to join the Russian army," FIDH president Alexis Deswaef said.
In September, Amnesty International published a separate report documenting cases in which promises of civilian employment led to military service.
It also described pressure on foreign nationals with insecure immigration status, including threats of deportation or criminal prosecution, as well as confiscation of documents, restrictions on movement and deployment after limited training.
Ukraine's own interviews with foreign prisoners of war show a more complicated picture.
According to figures released by the Coordination Headquarters in October, 46.7% of respondents said they signed contracts to obtain Russian citizenship, while 28% said they had not known they would be fighting against Ukraine.
Those findings describe the surveyed prisoners, not necessarily all foreign nationals recruited by Russia.
Who can be held responsible?
Russia denies illegally recruiting foreign nationals.
At a March 2026 press conference with his Kenyan counterpart, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov insisted that foreign volunteers joined the military in accordance with Russian law.
However, Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters says 41.4% of foreign POWs it surveyed were recruited through military enlistment offices or recruitment centers, indicating the involvement of official Russian institutions in at least some cases.
Tomak says establishing legal responsibility remains difficult, particularly when recruitment is conducted through intermediaries.
There is a distinction between prosecuting an individual recruiter or commander for specific conduct and establishing the responsibility of a state whose institutions may have facilitated or benefited from deceptive recruitment.
Tomak and fellow researchers are examining possible international accountability mechanisms, including those available through the United Nations and the International Criminal Court. But she cautions that identifying applicable offenses and assembling sufficient evidence will take time.
Yusov says Ukraine is working with governments whose citizens have been captured while serving in Russia's military or may have been victims of deceptive recruitment.
That cooperation includes the Stop Russian Recruiters campaign, involving Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters and Foreign Ministry.
Countries where recruits originate may also be able to investigate intermediaries under their own laws.
"This is definitely not just Kenya's problem, and not just Ukraine's problem," Yusov said. "It is a global threat, and the response must also be global and collective."