Russia is recruiting Syrian and Yemeni migrants through business visas and promises of salaries, turning them into soldiers and sending them to fight on the front in Ukraine. The discreet strategy is a well-worked strategy.
The huge losses in the war have created a need for labor and forced the Kremlin to ask North Korea for material and aid and manpower. Another method of Moscow is to send mercenaries to its operational areas abroad. Turning the Middle East into a military reserve for Russian President Vladimir Putin has allowed him to send reinforcements to his forces in Ukraine to continue the war he started in February 2022.
Mercenaries are recruited through local governments, in cooperation with migration services and the Russian Foreign Ministry (MFA), especially in the Bryansk region on the border with Ukraine. This facilitates the entry into Russia of Syrian and Yemeni citizens who are looking for well-paid work, but are sent to the front. Recruitment is carried out mainly by connecting with potential mercenaries mainly via Telegram and WhatsApp, BGNES reported.
The largest channel for recruiting migrants for mercenaries is "Drug Rossii" - "Friends of Russia". It publishes advertisements promising Russian citizenship and a salary of 2,000 euros per month upon signing a contract with the Ministry of Defense (MOD). After establishing initial contact, Russian officials based in the border regions of Ukraine take over the movement of the mercenaries' documents and facilitate the issuance of their visas, registered as business visas, their arrival on site, and their distribution to the front.
This process is assumed to be the responsibility of the Interior Ministry, but it likely remains under the supervision of the Foreign Ministry, according to the investigative journalism website The Insider. The publication has obtained letters of invitation from local officials addressed to the head of the Foreign Ministry's consular department, Ruslan Markov.
By first passing through the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVR), the Kremlin can use business visas to conceal contracts with mercenaries, who are subsequently signed with contracts with the MoD.
At the same time, some migrants only realize after arriving in Russia that they will be sent to fight at the front. This is the case of Syrian citizen Wahid Mursal al-Shibli, a Syrian citizen from the province of Sweida, who eventually agreed to fight in Ukraine, convinced by the promise of a good salary. After a few months, the horrors of the war made him try to return to Syria, but the Russian embassy in Damascus did not provide him with any help. In September 2024, he was killed, and his family did not receive any compensation from Russia.