Yemeni men – who were recruited into the Russian army and managed to escape – said they were promised well-paid job and Russian citizenship. However, once they arrived, they stayed forcibly conscripted into the army and sent to the front in Ukraine.
The contracts of the Yemeni recruits obtained by “FT” are linked to a company founded by a prominent Houthi politician Abdulwali Abdo Hassan al-Jabri. The company is formally registered as a tour operator and medical equipment supplier.
War in Ukraine. Russia is forcibly recruiting Houthi fighters
The Financial Times talked to one of the recruits who was among the group of approx 200 Yemenis, conscripted into the Russian army in September. He was lured to Russia with promises of work in the fields “security” i “engineering”.
After a few weeks spent at the front, a mercenary escaped with four others, the newly arrived Houthis and he hid in a forest in Ukraine.
Russia is recruiting for the front. Appeals from abroad
Russia is recruiting mercenaries in various countries. Mercenary of the Russian army from Somalia Muhammad Adil was captured by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in early January 2024. After arriving in Russia, he started working in a factorybut soon he saw an advertisement for the Russian army on the street and signed the contract on December 3, 2023. Less than a month later, on January 4, 2024, he was on the front line in Ukraine – Ukrainian media reported in May this year.
However, in the summer of 2023 it came to light that people of Nepalwho came to the Russian Federation to study, are recruited for the war against Ukraine. The main arguments for making such a decision are: money.
In December last year, the Nepalese authorities issued an official statement in which called on Moscow to stop recruiting its citizens for war and returning the bodies of the fallen.
And at the end of August the special services of Denmark, Norway and Sweden warned against Russia recruiting members of Scandinavian criminal groups. They would help carry out sabotage actions in these countries. A spokesman for the Swedish secret services said that this was the case “new phenomenon”. – Russia is able to go much further in actions that threaten security – he added.