At least 204 Armenian citizens who fought against Ukraine in the ranks of the Russian army have died or are missing.
This is reported by the project "I Want to Live".
They say they have data on at least 994 Armenians who signed contracts with the Russian army. This makes Armenia one of the eight countries from which Russia has recruited the most citizens for the war against Ukraine.
The 204 dead or missing citizens known to the project are more than Armeniaʼs losses in the Third Karabakh War of 2023.
In addition, at least two Armenian citizens and nearly 10 ethnic Armenians are currently being held captive in Ukraine. According to the “I Want to Find” project, at least 621 applications have been received to search for Armenians who have gone missing.
In 2025 alone, 575 Armenians signed contracts with the Russian army. In 2023, there were 83, adds "I Want to Live".
"For Moscow, this is not only a means to replenish losses in the Russian Armed Forces, but also a factor of destabilization and pressure on Armenia, which strives for European integration," the project noted.
Also, according to "I Want to Live", citizens of 23 out of 27 European Union countries fought or continue to fight in the Russian army. In total, the project knows the personal data of more than 28 thousand foreigners from 135 countries of the world recruited by Russia for the war. Several hundred of them, who are citizens of 48 countries of the world, are currently in Ukraine as prisoners of war.
Russian mercenaries from other countries
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. Some citizens of Nepal and India are already in captivity or have died. There are also videos on social networks with Africans as part of the Russian occupation forces in Ukraine.
The Kremlin also cooperates with the North Korean army, whose soldiers were involved in fighting in the Kursk region. In addition, in September 2023, a scheme to recruit mercenaries for the war against Ukraine was exposed in Cuba.
At the end of October 2025, it became known that the Russian Federation was recruiting people in the Balkan Peninsula to fight in the Russian army, promising payments, citizenship, and benefits.
Mercenaries from South Africa were also sent to fight against Ukraine. In late 2025, the daughter of former South African President Jacob Zuma resigned from her parliamentary mandate: she was accused of deceiving 18 men into going as mercenaries to fight for Russia in Ukraine.
In January 2026, another scheme to recruit foreigners became known — the Russians lured Bangladeshi citizens into supposedly civilian vacancies, and then sent them to fight against Ukraine.
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