Russia promises money and citizenship But in reality it sends foreigners to their deaths
Short, aggressively edited videos appear on social networks. Men in uniform, slogans about strength, courage and adventure, and between them – specifics: a bonus for signing a contract, a monthly salary, a promise of legalization of stay or Russian citizenship. On the Chinese Internet, such materials were distributed on Douyin (the local version of TikTok). One of the advertisements directly asked: “Do you want to demonstrate your strength here?” According to The Guardian, in April 2025, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyі spoke of at least 155 Chinese citizens fighting on the side of Russia, and Kyiv accused Moscow of “systematic work” on recruitment in China.
Documents and analyses by human rights organizations show that Russia has created an extensive mechanism for recruiting foreigners to fight against Ukraine. FIDH, Truth Hounds and the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and the Rule of Law estimate that since the start of the full-scale invasion, Russia has recruited at least 27,000 citizens from over 130 countries. The authors of the report write about a system that goes beyond the usual “voluntary movement”: it includes pressure, fraud, economic dependence and, in some cases, mechanisms close to human trafficking. The Asian component of this system is particularly important. On the one hand, Russia has a multi-million population of migrant workers from Central Asia, who have been present in its economy for years. On the other, it is increasingly boldly recruiting citizens from countries from China to Nepal and the Philippines. The common denominator is simple: the worse the economic, legal or social situation of a potential recruit, the easier it is to turn him into a “contract soldier”. This is not always a classic mercenary who deliberately goes to fight for money. Often this is an undocumented migrant, a prisoner, a debtor, a person who was deceived by a job offer, or someone who realizes too late that he signed not a civilian contract, but a ticket to the front.
In the case of China, this story has an additional political overtone. Beijing officially claims that it is not a party to the war, although it remains a strategic partner of Moscow. When the Ukrainians showed two captured Chinese, the matter immediately became diplomatically delicate. Reuters, citing American officials, wrote that more than a hundred Chinese citizens fighting in the Russian army are mercenaries with no obvious direct connection to the Chinese government. At the same time, a former Western intelligence officer claimed that Chinese military officers were behind Russian front lines with Beijing’s knowledge in order to draw tactical conclusions from the war.