The European Union (EU) has stated this Thursday that Russia has recruited “more than 28,000 foreign citizens from 135 countries” to fight in the war in Ukraine “as assault troops,” many of them “coerced or deceived,” amid reports emerging in multiple countries about the recruitment of fighters, sometimes under false promises.
“Russia has suffered more than 1.4 million casualties since the start of the large-scale invasion of Ukraine. To compensate for these losses, Russia has recruited more than 28,000 foreign citizens from 135 countries,” the European External Action Service stated on social media.
The service, led by the European Union High Representative for Foreign Policy, Kaja Kallas, also denounced that “many” of those foreign recruits “have been coerced or deceived to serve as assault troops” for the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
“Foreign recruits may buy time, but not victory,” the EU diplomacy added in a post citing another on the same topic released the day before by the EU Delegation in South Africa.
In that, the Embassy based in Pretoria shares a news article from the South African newspaper ‘Daily Maverick’ about the recruitment of Africans for the Russian front in Ukraine and denounces that “it has been confirmed that more than 3,500 foreigners have died fighting for Russia against Ukraine.”
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“Many of them were young Africans dragged to the battlefield,” claims the cited post, in which the Delegation demands that “Russia must end its war of aggression.”
Over the past year, multiple cases of recruitment of foreigners to fight in the war in Ukraine on Russia’s behalf have emerged—including cases of coercion, deception, and fraud—both from nationals of African countries such as Kenya, Uganda, or Zimbabwe, and, across the Atlantic Ocean, from citizens of Colombia or, more recently, Bolivia.
However, there have also been cases of recruitment, sometimes deceptive, for the Ukrainian forces: the daughter of former South African president Jacob Zuma, Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, resigned as a member of parliament in November 2025 after being accused of recruiting and trafficking 17 South African men to fight in mercenary groups in the war in Ukraine.
