According to the Department of Labor, human trafficking is defined as “a crime involving the exploitation of someone for the purposes of compelled labor or a commercial sex act through the use of force, fraud, or coercion.” The DOL definitions of these are:

Force: The use of physical or sexual violence against a victim, as well as monitoring and confinement

Fraud: The use of false promises to convince the victim of a better job, romantic relationship, or life

Coercion: The use of threats of physical or mental harm, physical restraint, abuse of shame or guilt, or document confiscation

As its three-day special military operation stretches into its third year, the Russian Federation has begun to feel a distinct manpower shortage for its frontlines in Ukraine, made worse by its political inability to openly draft Russians and its adoption of costly human wave attacks. In response, the Russian government has increasingly turned to force, fraud, and coercion to replenish its ranks, with foreign recruits as a primary target. These efforts exploit vulnerable individuals, usually from developing countries, by preying on their desire for a better life, only to trap them in often fatal conflict.

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Fraud

The first method the Russian Federation has used to lure in recruits is fraud. Russian agents usually offer approximately $2,100 a month with a sign-on bonus of $2,000 to men from poorer countries (including Cuba, India, and Nepal willing to travel to Russia and join the Russian military.

Initially, this seems like a fair deal to those looking to earn a better living and send money home to their families. After all, many recruits appear to continue posting on social media and communicating with their friends and families. But the true nature of the fraud becomes clear as recruits are sent to the front. According to one Nepali national, foreign recruits, alongside Russian convicts, are sent to the frontlines in front of Russian soldiers. There, they are beaten and left without enough food to survive. Their isolation is so complete that family and friends cannot reach them at all. The family of one Indian recruit, Moun, only learned that he had died after contacting the Indian embassy. A Cuban recruit could not reach his cousin to tell him that that cousin’s brother had died.

Many foreign troops have a change of heart and wish to return home but, having signed a contract, are told by their commanders leaving would count as desertion, and they will be imprisoned for 15 years. At this point, their only hope for escape is to surrender to the Ukrainians, pay an “agent” to help them escape, try to run off into the woods, or appeal to their own government to help them (the latter of which was successfully done by 45 Indian victims when Indian Prime Minister Modi brought the matter up with Putin personally). If foreign recruits cannot escape, they must try to survive until the end of their contract, that is, if the Russian government is willing to honor the agreement.

In even more extreme examples of fraud, victims are lured in with fake job offers inside or outside of Russia, often with non-combatant military roles, but then forced to the frontlines. In one case, a group of young women from several African countries and Sri Lanka was flown to Moscow with the promise of high-paying jobs in Europe but then made to work in a drone factory owned by the Russian government.

Perhaps the most fraudulent trap was sprung against a group of Indian men who traveled to Russia as tourists, only to be imprisoned and starved for two days. They were told that if they did not join the Russian army, they would be sent to prison for ten years for entering the country illegally.

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Coercion:

The second method of deceptive recruitment by Russia is focused on coercing foreigners into signing a contract with the military. This usually occurs through the legal system, with convicts in torturous conditions told they will receive their freedom if they serve, or undocumented workers threatened with prison time or deportation if they refuse to sign contracts. Almost always, during the coercion, the victims are already in Russian custody and have had their documentation taken away. These individuals are treated much worse than willing recruits, with some reporting abuse during training. In addition, the families and friends of convicts or migrant workers being coerced may wish to fight for their loved ones and raise awareness of the issue but may be too fearful of the Russian government’s reprisals to do so.

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Force:

Lastly, the use of force plays a vital role in Russia’s ability to keep foreign recruits from escaping. With frontline troops, the force takes the form of foreign recruits being prevented from leaving by Russian army units behind them who rely on them to absorb enemy attacks. These units will doubtlessly arrest or shoot deserters, so the foreign recruits have little hope of escaping. In addition, Russia generally does not adequately train these troops how to fight or provide them with sufficient supplies, so their odds of using their military equipment to fight back or escape are nearly non-existent.

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Though these are the primary methods the Russian government uses to obtain conscripts, there are significant differences in the methods used to recruit foreigners of different nationalities. For example, many Cubans and Nepalese recruits have signed on willingly, with up to 15,000 Nepalese men having been recruited. This is likely due to the widespread poverty in these two countries. One Nepalese recruit making only $400 a month reported that he felt he had an easy choice in accepting the $2,000 Russia promised him.

On the other hand, many central Asians (Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Turkmen, and Kirgiz) and Sub-Saharan Africans generally refuse to sign on willingly, instead having to be lured in with fraud or made to sign on through coercion. The reason for this difference is unclear, though it may be differing economics or more recent experiences with colonialism, economic exploitation, and cultural dominion.

Sadly for the foreign recruits, they are far too few in number and too poorly trained to make any difference in the war long term other than to absorb Ukrainian bullets. The only purpose their deaths and suffering serve is to allow the Kremlin to claim it has international support for its war in Ukraine and to put off another mobilization for a few months.