• Amnesty International accuses Russia of human trafficking through recruitment of foreign nationals to fight in Ukraine.
• Recruits were promised lucrative salaries, sign-up bonuses, and pathways to Russian citizenship, but many received nothing and were coerced into enlisting.
• Foreign nationals from various countries reported being deceived, having their passports seized, and receiving inadequate military training after signing contracts to fight in Ukraine.

Russia's recruitment of foreign nationals to fight in the war in Ukraine "amounts to human trafficking," Amnesty International said on Thursday.

"Many recruits were promised lucrative salaries and sign-up bonuses that were not fulfilled. While some received partial payments before being captured, many reported receiving nothing at all," the human rights organization said in a press release on the new report.

"Beyond financial remuneration, all those interviewed described promised pathways to Russian citizenship as a particular incentive."

Russian recruiters used coercion, fraud and deception to persuade foreigners to enlist in the Russian military, Amnesty said.

"The level of exploitation and coercion involved led us to conclude that in many cases this amounts to human trafficking, as defined under the UN's Palermo Protocol," said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International's secretary general.

Amnesty said it interviewed more than one dozen foreign nationals including from Colombia, Cuba, Egypt, Somalia and South Africa during six visits to two Ukrainian prisoner-of-war camps between 2024 and 2026.

Only three of those interviewed had knowingly signed a contract to fight in Ukraine, it said.

Prisoners of war from Brazil and Sri Lanka told Amnesty that, after signing the contracts, their passports and mobile phones were seized, according to the organization.

They also said that the contracts were in Russian only and that nobody spoke English. The recruits only received inadequate basic military training lasting around two weeks, according to the report.

Amnesty noted it was unable to conduct investigations in Russia where the organization has been banned since May 2025.