Russia brands foreign mercenaries — instead of tokens, they paint numbers on their skin. GUR explained why this is done

Russia is marking foreign mercenaries in its army with serial numbers. This is how Moscow tightens control over the military, effectively depriving them of their names and identities, and hiding its losses in the war.

This was reported by the Main Intelligence Directorate (known as GUR) of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.

Instead of the usual metal military identification tags, foreigners are given “inventory numbers” on their equipment or directly on their skin. For this, they use permanent dyes — henna or jagua. Such marks can last for several weeks. If the number is erased, it is applied again.

There have already been cases where Russian police have stopped foreigners, including students and migrant workers, and checked their license plates. This is how security forces try to find mercenaries who have escaped from the Russian army.

GUR notes that this system could allow Russia to hide real losses among foreign fighters. If a mercenary dies, his body could be left on the battlefield as the body of an unknown person, and the person himself could be recorded as missing. It could also help avoid paying compensation to the families of those killed in Africa and Asia.

Ukrainian intelligence compares this marking to the practice of Nazi concentration camps, where prisoners were assigned numbers instead of names. GUR believes that Russia is thus turning foreign mercenaries into "numbered assault units".

Ukrainian intelligence transfers the collected data to foreign partners and law enforcement agencies for use in future international investigations.

Russian mercenaries from other countries

According to the Coordination Headquarters, as of the end of March this year, the Russians had recruited 27 407 foreigners from 135 countries for the war against Ukraine. 10 000 living and dead mercenaries have been identified, and hundreds more are in Ukrainian captivity.

There are currently established facts of recruitment into the Russian army of citizens of Nepal, India, Syria, Serbia and Somalia. The Russian Federation has also recruited into its army illegal migrants from the Finnish border who were trying to enter the EU through Russia.

In April 2025, Volodymyr Zelensky said that two Chinese citizens who fought as part of the Russian army were captured in the Donetsk region.

In January 2026, another scheme to recruit foreigners became known — Russians lured Bangladeshi citizens to supposedly civilian vacancies, and then sent them to fight against Ukraine. Russia also recruited 459 Peruvians to fight against Ukraine — 11 of them died.

Also in May, it became known that at least 204 Armenian citizens who fought against Ukraine in the ranks of the Russian army were killed or missing.

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