Foreign troops help Putin avoid pitfalls of another Russian mobilization

In November, reports emerged of further Kremlin efforts to recruit foreign fighters for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. According to Financial Timesa company linked to the Houthis supplied Russia with hundreds of Yemeni mercenaries. Recruits traveled to Russia where they were promised high wages and Russian citizenship before being sent to the front lines in Ukraine.

Such claims are not new. The Kremlin reportedly used foreign fighters from the early stages of the invasion to avoid the potential pitfalls of mobilizing fresh troops at home. Moscow is accused of conducting employment in a number of low-income countries across the global south. Russia’s efforts in Cuba and India Critics have harshly characterized them as human trafficking operations. Nepal has shown itself especially well vulnerable to Russian recruitment, with estimates ranging from a few thousand to 15,000 enlisted to fight in Ukraine.

Putin’s regime has also reportedly targeted vulnerable populations within its own borders. This summer, the Russian authorities gathered more than 30,000 migrants with Russian citizenship who did not apply for military service. Many were later sent to Ukraine.

Recruitment efforts are underway in Russian immigration detention centers that hold migrant workers, mostly from Central Asian countries. In October 2024 report per RFE/RL claimed that Russian officials made prison conditions unbearably harsh and inhumane in an effort to pressure prisoners to join the military. “They keep you in a cold cell, you sleep on the floor with only a pillow under you holding plastic bottles filled with hot water to keep warm,” according to one Kyrgyz prisoner.

While many foreign fighters reported being pressured or misled by Russian recruiters, others were lured by promises of relatively high salaries and the prospect of a Russian passport. As of November 2024, Russia has granted citizenship to more than 3,000 foreigners in exchange for military service.

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The issue of foreign troops fighting for Russia has hit the headlines in recent weeks following the news that North Korea had sent approximately ten thousand troops to join the invasion of Ukraine. Many see this as a watershed moment in the war, due to the number of troops involved and the official nature of the deployment. Given the sheer size of North Korea’s armed forces, there is clearly considerable scope for Pyongyang to send many more men.

It is easy to understand Moscow’s enthusiasm for foreign fighters. As the war heats up and approaches the three-year mark, Russia appears to be facing increasing manpower challenges. Although the Kremlin does not release official information on the scale of its losses in Ukraine, most estimates point to hundreds of thousands of Russian soldiers killed or seriously wounded during the invasion. According to the UK Ministry of Defence, November 2024 was the deadliest month of the war so far, and Russia has suffered more than 45,000 casualties.

The bleak outlook for Russian troops in Ukraine makes it difficult to attract volunteers. In response, the Russian authorities have recently begun to offer greater financial incentives for new recruits as well as generous compensation to the families of those killed in action.

Despite these efforts, there are indications that the Russian military is now dangerously overstretched. When Ukraine launched a surprise cross-border incursion into Kursk Oblast in the summer of 2024, Russia initially had to rely on a makeshift defense composed mostly of young conscripts, many of whom had been captured. More recently, Russia’s inability to save its Syrian client Bashar Assad has highlighted Moscow’s ineptitude lack of reserves.

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With his own military fully engaged in Ukraine and suffering heavy losses, Putin is running out of options as he seeks to protect the Russians from the consequences of his invasion. For much of the war, the Kremlin focused its domestic recruiting efforts on regions with lower incomes and ethnic minorities of Russia, while he also engaged a large number of prisoners. Such tactics avoided touching more advanced regions to prevent protests or rallies. However, these sources of labor are not infinite.

Putin remains determined to avoid a repeat of his September 2022 mobilization order, which proved highly unpopular and led to an exodus from Russia as hundreds of thousands left military service. With prisoner supplies drying up and fewer Russians willing to volunteer for a war many see as a meat grinder, his best option now may be to seek increasing numbers of foreign troops.

The implications of foreign soldiers fighting in the invasion of Russia extend far beyond the battlefields of Ukraine. The growing cooperation between the Houthis and Russia has caused alarm in recent weeks, with the US special envoy to Yemen reporting that Moscow could begin transferring weapons to the rebel group to enable it to more effectively carry out attacks on Western shipping in the Red Sea.

Meanwhile, an even greater cause for concern is the fallout from North Korea’s entry into the war. Fighting in Ukraine is rare opportunity for North Korean soldiers to gain valuable experience in modern warfare, including innovations such as the use of drones. Pyongyang is also expected to receive significant military support from Russia that could improve its missile, nuclear and naval capabilities. Unsurprisingly, South Korea is watching the situation with growing uneasiness.

Russia’s use of foreign troops is a dangerous trend that promises to prolong the war and has the potential to fuel international instability. It’s also a sign that Putin, while not yet running out of Russian recruits, would prefer to look elsewhere for manpower to maintain the expensive human-wave tactic used by the Russian military in Ukraine.

Katherine Spencer is a program assistant at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center.

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The views expressed in UkraineAlert are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff or its supporters.

The Eurasian Center mission is to enhance transatlantic cooperation in promoting stability, democratic values ​​and prosperity in Eurasia, from Eastern Europe and Turkey in the west to the Caucasus, Russia and Central Asia in the east.

Image: Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a meeting of the Presidential Council for Strategic Development and National Projects at the Kremlin in Moscow. December 5, 2024 (Sputnik/Valery Sharifulin/Pool via REUTERS)