Amnesty International Report: Russia Lures Citizens of Multiple Countries to Fight in Ukraine with Fake Job Promises, Constituting Human Trafficking

Human rights organization Amnesty International released a report on Thursday accusing Russia of luring foreign citizens on a large scale through fake employment promises, seizing their documents upon arrival, forcing them to sign military contracts they could not understand, and then deploying them as "cannon fodder" on the Ukrainian battlefield. The organization's Secretary General Agnès Callamard told AFP that Russia's recruitment practices constitute human trafficking under the United Nations definition.

According to AFP and France 24, the victims include citizens from Brazil, Colombia, Sri Lanka, and South Africa. An independent investigation by AFP in June revealed that Moscow had lured Kenyan citizens to the front lines under the pretext of well-paid civilian jobs. Callamard told AFP: "The suffering associated with the internationalization of this war is reaching highly vulnerable communities and individuals around the world."

Ukraine estimated in April that more than 28,000 foreign nationals from 136 countries were fighting in the Russian military; Russia has also been accused of deploying approximately 14,000 North Korean soldiers during Ukraine's 2024 offensive in the Kursk region. Neither Moscow nor Kyiv has publicly disclosed the total number of foreign soldiers in their respective armed forces. Ukraine also recruits foreign volunteers, but Amnesty International pointed out that Russia's systematic fraud and coercion go beyond the scope of voluntary enlistment and amount to human trafficking.

The recruitment chain described in the report begins with fake job advertisements online, using civilian employment as a cover to lure foreigners to Russia. "Passports are confiscated, they are forced to sign documents they cannot understand, subjected to inexplicable training, and ultimately reduced to cannon fodder," Callamard summarized the process. Among the cases disclosed in the report, a South African truck driver was told he was flying to Moscow for driving work, only to have all his personal belongings confiscated upon arrival. The recruitment networks also target foreigners already in Russia without legal residency status, recruiting them into military service in exchange for residency rights and legal status.

"It is clear that many of those working for the Russian state know that the people they are recruiting to the front lines are victims of trafficking," Callamard said. "They are accomplices to this phenomenon and should be held accountable."

Amnesty International noted that, because the organization has been designated as a "foreign agent" in Russia and is unable to conduct comparable investigations among foreign prisoners of war held by the Russian side, all the testimonies it has obtained so far come from foreign prisoners of war on the Ukrainian side. In February, when AFP visited a detention facility in Ukraine under supervision, it collected similar testimony from foreign POWs who had fought for Russia — several said they had been forced to sign contracts they could not understand, were poorly equipped, and had difficulty communicating with superiors due to language barriers.

Russia has previously denied accusations that it forces foreigners into military service and did not immediately respond publicly to Amnesty International's latest allegations. Callamard called on the leaders of Ukraine and the relevant countries to provide evidence of these acts of "human trafficking" so that prosecutions can be brought against those responsible. She acknowledged that Kyiv may not prioritize such investigations, but argued that it would be worth committing resources, as this "would also demonstrate that Ukraine's values and practices are fundamentally different from those of Russia."

Under the United Nations definition, human trafficking involves the illegal recruitment, transportation, or harboring of persons through fraud, deception, or abuse of power. Callamard noted that this crime is manifested in "the movement of people," "coercive means, false promises, and the use of violence," and "situations of exploitation" — and that the cases documented by Amnesty International fall within every element of this definition.