Russia launches global mercenary recruitment drive across Asia, Africa, and Latin America
Illustrative photo (Getty Images)
Russia is launching a global recruitment campaign for mercenaries in Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The process is disguised as cooperation with governments and security structures, according to the Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.
The task of the special operation is not only to replenish human resources for the war against Ukraine, but also to create parallel militarized channels for hybrid operations — from intelligence and sabotage to political destabilization in regions of traditional US presence.
According to experts, such involvement of citizens of countries economically or politically linked to Washington undermines security mechanisms and trust in allied formats.
"Russia is embedding recruitment chains into criminal ecosystems, particularly in Latin America, which simplifies financing and logistics, and creates the risk of hot spots and forced military responses near the US borders," the Center for Countering Disinformation notes.
The agency also cited examples of such recruitment. Recently, a scandal erupted in Kenya after an athlete was tricked into signing a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense and sent to the front. The country's Foreign Ministry reported several such cases.
At the same time, in South Africa, there's been a lot of women recruited to work in factories making attack drones in the Russian economic zone of Alabuga under the guise of legal employment, but really for forced labor.
The Center noted that such practices are not anti-colonialism, as the Kremlin tries to portray them, but a reproduction of colonial schemes of exploitation of people as cheap labor and cannon fodder. This destabilizes entire regions and undermines international security.
Recruitment of mercenaries by Russia
According to media reports, Russia is recruiting mercenaries from the Middle East and Afghanistan to fight against Ukraine.
Meanwhile, the US has counted up to 5,000 Cuban citizens fighting on the side of Russia against Ukraine.
According to Forbes sources, about 25,000 Cubans are fighting against Ukraine, compensating for the massive losses of Russians. This makes them the largest contingent on the front lines in the world.
