The European Parliament adopted a resolution on 12 March condemning Russia for recruiting thousands of low-income citizens from African countries, Cuba, and Central and South Asia through deception and coercion to fight in its war against Ukraine. The vote passed 479 to 17, with 43 abstentions, according to the resolution published by the assembly.
Russia is using "deceptive tactics and coercion," the resolution states, operating through state-linked companies, intermediaries, military structures, and embassy officials to target individuals in low-income areas — primarily via social media — with false promises of employment, education, or Russian citizenship.
Once recruited, according to the document, individuals are brought to Russia, stripped of their identity documents, and forcibly mobilized under pressure or threats. African recruits are then assigned to the most dangerous front-line duties and, the resolution states, "treated as expendable" and subjected to racial violence and discrimination.
The document singles out the case of Francis Ndungu Ndaru, a Kenyan national, as illustrative of what it calls "the extreme cruelty of these practices." The Parliament calls on Russia to inform his relatives of his whereabouts and condition and to return him to Kenya.
The resolution also reports that "hundreds of African women have been deceived into working in drone assembly factories in Russia under extremely dangerous and exploitative conditions."
Some African governments have already identified recruitment networks operating systematically in their territories, the resolution notes, describing a pattern of targeting vulnerable populations online with fraudulent offers before funneling them toward Russian military service.
The Parliament "strongly condemns the trafficking and forced recruitment of foreign nationals into Russia's military service and war-related labor exploitation," the resolution reads.
The findings align with earlier US statements cited by European Pravda, which reported that as many as 5,000 Cuban nationals may be fighting on Russia's side in Ukraine. Europol has separately assisted Ukraine and Moldova in identifying more than 650 mercenaries from Russian private military companies.
