Russian recruiters lure Bangladeshi citizens into supposedly civilian jobs and then send them to fight against Ukraine.
This is reported by the Associated Press in its investigation.
The journalists spoke to three Bangladeshi men who had defected from the Russian army. One of them — Rahman — said he had been looking for work abroad and had received an offer to become a cleaner at a military camp in Russia, with a salary of $1 000-$1 500 a month and the prospect of permanent residence.
Upon arriving in Moscow, he and a group of other workers were asked to sign documents in Russian that turned out to be military contracts. They were sent to a camp where they were trained in drone operations, medical evacuation, and combat skills.
To force recruits to fight, the Russians threatened them with 10-year prison sentences and beat them. Bangladeshis went to the front lines, transported ammunition, evacuated the wounded, and carried out the dead. Rahman was wounded in the leg, after which he fled to the Bangladesh embassy in Moscow and returned home.
Journalists corroborated the menʼs accounts with documents, including military contracts, medical certificates, photographs and travel documents. Other families reported that their loved ones had disappeared after traveling to Russia for work. Bangladesh police and human rights group BRAC have confirmed at least 10 cases of disappearance.
The investigation showed that local agents were sending people to the company “SP Global”, which ceased operations in 2025. In total, about 40 Bangladeshi citizens are believed to have died in the Russian war against Ukraine, some going there voluntarily because of the promise of high salaries.
Russian mercenaries in foreign countries
In the full-scale war against Ukraine , mercenaries from at least 48 countries are fighting on Russiaʼs side. In Moscow alone, more than 1 500 foreigners could be recruited into the Russian army from April 2023 to May 2024.
Currently, there are established facts of recruitment of citizens of Nepal and Somalia into the Russian army. The Russian Federation also recruited illegal migrants from the Finnish border into its army who were trying to get to the EU through Russia.
As for citizens of Nepal and India, some of them are already in captivity or have died. There are already videos on social networks with Africans as part of the Russian occupation forces in Ukraine.
The Kremlin also cooperates with the North Korean army — its soldiers are involved in fighting in the Kursk region. In September 2023, a scheme to recruit mercenaries for the war in Ukraine on the side of the occupiers was exposed in Cuba.
In April 2025, Volodymyr Zelensky said that two Chinese citizens who fought as part of the Russian army were captured in the Donetsk region.
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