Hired to Fight, Jailed Back Home

Over the more than three years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian authorities have recruited thousands of foreign nationals to fight on their front lines. Many are migrant workers from Central Asia who ended up fighting instead of finding jobs. And now at least 41 such persons have been convicted of mercenarism in their home countries, according to an investigation by the independent outlet Vot Tak, which reviewed court records in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan.

Vot Tak found that financial hardship was the primary motivation for many migrants who signed military contracts with Russia’s Ministry of Defense: in over half the cases examined, wages were cited as the main incentive. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, soldiers receive a monthly salary of at least R210,000 (approximately $2,700), in addition to signing bonuses that can reach several million rubles, depending on the region.

One Uzbek national, identified only as A.T. in court documents, spent nearly a year in Russia unsuccessfully searching for stable work. In November 2023, he received a mass text message reading, “Serve in the army, make money.” He signed a contract and was deployed to Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast. A year later, A.T. was sentenced to three years and six months in prison for mercenary activity, after he returned home to Uzbekistan.

Another unnamed 28-year-old Uzbek man traveled to Russia in May 2024 in an attempt to escape financial ruin, after his family’s retail business went bankrupt. He initially planned to compete in a mixed martial arts tournament in Moscow, borrowing money from fight managers. When the fight was canceled, they demanded repayment and confiscated his documents.

While walking through Moscow, he saw a Russian military recruitment billboard. Hoping to repay his debt, he agreed to enlist. Recruiters promised he would work as a technician, but he was trained as a regular infantryman. On August 5, after a month of training, he was deployed to Luhansk, where he was wounded on his first day, losing an eye and suffering multiple shrapnel injuries. He was later sentenced to four years and six months in prison in Uzbekistan.

In some cases, migrants say they were coerced into signing contracts. Several court rulings cite allegations of Russian police threatening migrants with deportation unless they agree to military service. That was the case for Abdulaziz Kholikov, a student from Uzbekistan studying at Synergy University in Moscow. In the summer of 2023, Russian authorities allegedly forced him to enlist, according to Uzbek criminal case records.

In contrast to the financial motives cited in most cases, only one documented instance involved an immigrant fighting for ideological reasons. A man from Kazakhstan joined PMC Wagner because his father had grown up in Ukraine’s Kharkiv Oblast. According to the court's press service, the man believed Ukraine was discriminating against ethnic Russians. He was sentenced to four years and six months in prison upon his return to Kazakhstan in July 2023.

It is difficult to estimate the total number of foreign nationals fighting for Russia. In May 2025, Investigative Committee Chairman Alexander Bastrykin said 20,000 soldiers had received Russian citizenship through military service.

Ukraine’s Khochu Zhit (I Want to Live) project, which tracks foreign fighters serving with Russian forces, identified 360 Kyrgyz citizens, 661 Kazakhs, and 1,100 Uzbeks in the Russian military.

According to Vot Tak, prosecutions for mercenarism in Uzbekistan have surged since 2023. Before that, the country saw no more than four such cases annually, mostly involving Islamist militants. Since the start of Russia’s invasion, 26 individuals have been convicted in Uzbekistan for fighting in Ukraine. Kazakhstan has observed a similar trend. 

Occasionally, pressure from Russian officials has helped some Central Asian fighters avoid imprisonment. One high-profile case involved Askar Kubanychbek of Kyrgyzstan, who in May 2023 received a 10-year sentence for joining the war in Ukraine. Kremlin-aligned media portrayed Kubanychbek as ideologically driven, and his case attracted attention in Moscow. Following a statement by Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova, who said Russia was exploring citizenship for Kubanychbek, Kyrgyzstan’s Supreme Court reduced his sentence to seven years and eventually released him on probation, barring him from leaving the country for three years.

Nonetheless, in the spring of 2024, Kubanychbek fled to Russia, where he applied for citizenship and gave an interview to Russia Today. He posed with his new Russian passport and confirmed he had signed another contract to return to the front.