Key facts
- Russia's recruitment of foreign nationals into its armed forces amounts to human trafficking, Amnesty International said.
- Recruiters lure individuals from low-income countries with false pretenses, offering military service as an alternative to detention or deportation.
- Foreign recruits are often deployed to front lines with minimal preparation and threatened if they seek to leave.
- The U.S. military destroyed five Iranian crude oil tankers on Sept. 8, three linked to Russia's shadow fleet.
- NATO allies disrupted a Russian exercise near Svalbard aimed at disabling subsea cables.
- A Russian strike on a shopping center in Pavlohrad killed four people and injured over 60.
Amnesty International has reported that Russia's recruitment of foreign nationals into its armed forces constitutes human trafficking, employing deceptive and coercive practices. The human rights organization stated in a report published Sept. 10 that Russia primarily targets individuals from low-income countries in the Global South.
According to the report, Russian recruiters lure people from abroad under false pretenses, exploiting the precarious situation of migrants in Russia by using overstayed work visas or supposed criminal offenses as leverage, offering military service as an alternative to detention or deportation. Once paperwork is signed, often in a language the recruits do not understand, military commanders allegedly restrict their movements, deploy them to front lines with minimal preparation, and threaten those who seek to leave.
The Russian army is accused of misrepresenting the nature of the work and the risks involved, offering lucrative payments and pathways to Russian citizenship that are rarely fulfilled. Many foreign recruits reportedly lack military training and are sent to active combat zones after only two weeks of training, which Amnesty International described as "an apparent disregard for human life."
Two Sri Lankan nationals interviewed for the report stated they were led to believe they would be working as cooks but were instead sent to fight on the front lines and were captured by Ukrainian forces within weeks. One described the fighting as "unimaginable" with "drones everywhere."
In separate developments, the U.S. military destroyed five Iranian crude oil tankers on Sept. 8, three of which have ties to Russia's shadow fleet, according to Ukraine's sanctions commissioner Vladyslav Vlasiuk. U.S. Central Command stated the strikes were in response to attempts by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to target a U.S. Navy warship. Three of the tankers, Kaviz, Charminar, and Riesco, have direct links to Russia's shadow fleet and have been involved in transporting Russian oil.
Additionally, NATO allies disrupted a covert Russian naval exercise near Norway's Svalbard archipelago that involved technology designed to disable critical subsea cables. Britain, Norway, and the United States tracked and confronted Russian vessels, preventing them from completing the exercise. Norwegian Defense Minister Tore Sandvik stated that the operation sent a clear message that Russia cannot operate covertly and that attempts to target critical infrastructure will be met with consequences.
Separately, four people were killed and over 60 injured after a Russian strike on a shopping center in Pavlohrad, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stressed the need for additional support, including strengthened air defenses, to protect Ukrainians from "Russian terror."