Russia offers incentives to those outside the country to fill the military – National

For average wage earners in Russia, it’s a big payday. For criminals who want to escape the harsh conditions and torture in prison, it is a chance for freedom. For immigrants hoping for a better life, it is an easy path to citizenship.

All they have to do is sign a contract to go to war in Ukraine.

As Russia seeks to replenish its forces nearly four years into the war – and avoid an unpopular encounter across the country – it is pulling out all the stops to find new soldiers to send to the battlefield.

Others came from abroad to fight in a war that turned into a bloody war. After signing a mutual defense agreement with Moscow in 2024, North Korea sent thousands of troops to help Russia defend its Kursk region from an attack by Ukraine.

Men from South Asian countries, including India, Nepal and Bangladesh, complained of being tricked into signing up to fight by employers promising them jobs. Officials in Kenya, South Africa and Iraq say the same has happened to citizens of their countries.

President Vladimir Putin told his annual news conference last month that 700,000 Russian troops are fighting in Ukraine. He gave the same number in 2024, and a slightly lower number – 617,000 – in December 2023. It is not clear if those numbers are accurate.

The numbers of military casualties remain hidden, as Moscow has released limited official figures. Britain’s Ministry of Defense said last summer that more than 1 million Russian soldiers may have been killed or wounded.

Independent Russian news site Mediazona, along with the BBC and a team of volunteers, looked at news reports, social media and government websites and collected the names of more than 160,000 soldiers killed. More than 550 of those were foreigners from more than a dozen countries.

Unlike Ukraine, where martial law and nationwide mobilization have been in place since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022, Putin has refused to order a wider call.

When the estimated number of 300,000 men was assessed later that year, tens of thousands of people fled to other countries. The effort stopped after a few weeks when the target was reached, but Putin’s announcement left the door open for another call. It also effectively liberalized all military contracts and prevented soldiers from quitting or being discharged, unless they reached certain age limits or were disabled by injury.

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Since then, Moscow has relied heavily on what it describes as voluntary registration.

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Ukrainian officials released video on Friday of the latest attack on Russian vessels.

The flow of voluntary conscripts signing military contracts remains strong, surpassing 400,000 last year, Putin said in December. It was not possible to independently verify the claim. Similar numbers were announced in 2024 and 2023.

Activists say these contracts often specify a fixed term of employment, such as one year, leading some potential subscribers to believe the commitment is temporary. But contracts are automatically extended indefinitely, they said.

The government offers high wages and many benefits to those who enlist. Regional authorities offer various sign-up bonuses, sometimes reaching tens of thousands of dollars.

In the Khanty-Mansi region in central Russia, for example, a registered person can get about $50,000 in various bonuses, according to the local government. That’s more than double the average annual income in the region, where monthly wages for the first 10 months of 2025 were reported to be just over $1,600.

There are also tax breaks, debt relief and other benefits.

Despite the Kremlin’s claims to rely on voluntary conscription, media reports and rights groups say conscripts — men aged 18-30 who do mandatory military service for a fixed period of time and are exempt from deployment to Ukraine — are often forced by the administration to sign contracts sending them to war.

Employment also extends to prisoners and those in pre-trial detention centers, a practice pioneered at the beginning of the war by the late Tsar Yevgeny Prigozhin and adopted by the Ministry of Defense. Laws now allow the employment of both convicted and suspected criminals.

Immigrants are also recruiting targets, both within Russia and abroad.

Laws granting accelerated Russian citizenship to registrants were adopted. Russian media and activists also report that attacks on areas where migrants often live or work lead to pressure to go to war, with new citizens being sent to registration offices to determine their eligibility for forced labor.

In November, Putin ruled that military service is mandatory for certain foreigners who want to stay permanently.

Others are reportedly lured to Russia by smuggling rings promising jobs, then duping them into signing military contracts. Cuban authorities in 2023 identified and sought to dismantle one such ring operating in Russia.

Nepal’s Foreign Minister, Narayan Prakash Saud, told the Associated Press in 2024 that his country asked Russia to bring back hundreds of Nepalis who had been conscripted to fight in Ukraine, and to return the remains of those killed in the war. Nepal has since banned citizens from traveling to Russia or Ukraine for work, citing recruitment efforts.

And in 2024, India’s investigative agency said it dismantled a network that lured at least 35 of its citizens to Russia on the pretext of employment. The men were trained to fight and sent to Ukraine against their will, and some were “severely injured,” the agency said.

When Putin hosted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for talks in 2024, New Delhi said its people who had been “misled” into joining the Russian military would be freed.

Iraqi officials say around 5,000 of its citizens have joined Russian forces and an unspecified number are fighting Ukrainian forces. Baghdad officials blocked social media, and one man was found guilty of human trafficking last year and sentenced to life in prison.

An unknown number of Iraqis were killed or went missing during the fighting in Ukraine. Some families have reported that relatives were lured to Russia under false pretenses and forced to register; in some cases, Iraqis have voluntarily joined the salary and citizenship of Russia.

Foreigners lured into combat are at greater risk because they don’t speak Russian, have no military experience and are considered “qualified, to put it bluntly,” said Anton Gorbatsevich of the activist group Idite Lesom, or “Get Lost,” which helps men get out of the military.

This month, Ukraine’s organization for the treatment of prisoners of war said more than 18,000 foreigners had been killed or fought on Russia’s side. About 3,400 were killed, and hundreds of citizens of 40 countries were held in Ukraine as POWs.

If true, that represents a fraction of the 700,000 troops Putin has said are fighting for Russia in Ukraine.

Using foreigners is only one way to meet the continuing demand, said Artyom Klyga, head of the legal department at the Movement of Conscientious Objectors, noting that Russia’s recruitment efforts seem to be stable. Most of those who seek help from this group, which helps men avoid going to war, are Russian citizens, he said.

Kateryna Stepanenko, a Russia researcher at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, said the Kremlin has gained a lot of “intelligence” over the past two years in attracting recruits, including immigrants.

But recruitment efforts are becoming “expensive” in Russia, which faces a faltering economy, he added.