In a new report, human rights advocates say that in many cases the recruitment of foreigners into Russia's army amounts to the crime of human trafficking.
Russia is illegally recruiting foreign nationals into its military by using deception, blackmail, document confiscation and the threat of deportation to coerce migrants into fighting in Ukraine — a practice that amounts to human trafficking under international law, Amnesty International said in a report Thursday.
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The finding follows interviews with prisoners of war from more than a dozen countries held in Ukrainian captivity, almost all of whom described abuses during recruitment that brought them into Russia's armed forces.
Practices documented by Amnesty International — including contracts signed without informed consent, confiscated passports, restricted freedom of movement, inadequate training and threats against those who tried to leave — meet the threshold for human trafficking under the UN Palermo Protocol, the organisation said.
The Palermo Protocol, or UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, defines human trafficking as the recruitment, transport or receipt of people through force, deception or coercion for the purpose of exploitation.
It is the primary international legal instrument on trafficking and has been ratified by 178 states, including Russia.
By April, Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War had identified 28,391 foreign nationals from 136 countries as having fought in Russia's armed forces. The figure excludes North Korean troops, who joined Russian forces at the front at the end of 2024.
Pyongyang deployed an estimated 10,000 troops to support Russian forces in late 2024, according to South Korean and US intelligence assessments, the first confirmed deployment of a third country's conventional military forces to the war.
Amnesty International sent a request for comment to Russian authorities and received no reply.
In May 2025, Russia designated it an "undesirable organisation," a legal classification that bans its presence in Russia, criminalises its activities in the country and prevents it from openly collecting information there.
How the recruitment works
Outside Russia, recruitment is built on deception. The most common scheme involves fake civilian job offers — in logistics, warehouses or construction — at salaries of around $2,000 a month.
Others promise help obtaining legal passage to the EU, presenting Russia as a transit country. Once people arrive, their documents are taken.
A third method exploits language barriers: foreign nationals sign what they believe is a civilian employment contract but find they have signed a contract with Russia's Defence Ministry.
Inside Russia, the methods shift to coercion. Labour migrants with irregular registration status and refugees are targeted specifically.
People detained for immigration violations are offered a choice between immediate deportation — which for many means poverty, persecution or danger at home — and signing a military contract.
The Russian authorities also operate through criminal human-trafficking networks and local intermediaries, Amnesty International said.
Amnesty International interviewed prisoners of war from Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Egypt, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Somalia and South Africa.
One of the most widely reported cases is that of Kenyan long-distance runner Evans Kibet, who travelled to Russia for a sporting event and said he was offered a civilian job before being taken to a training camp.
His documents and phone were confiscated after he signed a contract he said he did not understand, and he was sent to the front in Ukraine's Kharkiv region. He surrendered to Ukrainian forces in July 2025.
By recruiting foreign nationals, the Kremlin is also pursuing a domestic political objective: deaths among foreign recruits generate less public reaction inside Russia than Russian casualties, reducing pressure for a new mobilisation wave.
International reaction
A number of governments have lodged formal protests and demanded repatriation. India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Ghana, Jordan, South Africa and Botswana have all submitted diplomatic notes or official demands.
Criminal cases have been opened in several countries against local recruitment networks.
Cuba's government described the practice as human trafficking. In March, Kenya's Foreign Minister Musalia Mudavadi travelled to Moscow for urgent talks.
Russia subsequently promised to stop recruiting Kenyan citizens, withdraw surviving Kenyans from the combat zone and repatriate the bodies of those killed.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said ahead of the BRICS summit in New Delhi on Saturday that Russia intended to return Indian citizens serving in its military "as soon as their identities are established."
On 12 March, the European Parliament voted by a majority to adopt a resolution formally defining Russia's recruitment of foreign nationals as human trafficking and grave human rights violations.