#foreign-fighters

#foreign-fighters

I'm Yemeni myself. I have reported on war for the BBC for years, including on my own country's long collapse. But nothing prepared me for what I would learn while investigating Russia's recruitment of foreign fighters: the precision with which vulnerability is targeted; how promises are tailored to poverty; how citizenship becomes bait; how families are left to grieve in the dark.

He stood his ground in a place where freedom is paid for in blood, and he gave his life so others could keep theirs, said the man, who has been contacted for comment. Ukraine is freer today because of him but the world is quieter without his laugh, his stubborn courage, his presence beside us. We shared cold nights, exhaustion, fear we never spoke out loud, and a bond forged where words stop working.

Ukraine accuses Russia of luring recruits from Africa into suicidal' military contracts to bolster its war efforts. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has said that more than 1,400 people from 36 African nations are known to be fighting for Russia in its war against Ukraine, urging governments to warn their citizens against joining a conflict where they are quickly killed. Foreign citizens in the Russian army have a sad fate, Sybiha wrote on X. Most of them are immediately sent to the so-called meat assaults', where they are quickly killed.

Ukraine's top general Oleksandr Syrskii said Kyiv's troops were stepping up assaults on Russian forces around the eastern Ukrainian town of Dobropillia to ease pressure on the embattled hub of Pokrovsk. Ukrainian forces carried out a long-range drone strike on a petrochemical plant in Russia's Bashkortostan region. Kyiv's military intelligence agency said the attack on the Sterlitamak plant sparked a fire in part of the facility that produces an additive for aviation fuel.

Currently, our good intelligence tells us about at least 20,000 people from Cuba that have already filled the documents and have been recruited to fight for Russia," Yusov said, per one of his colleagues who translated his presentation for the congressional panel. His assessment underscores the challenges that both Russia and Ukraine face in keeping their front lines staffed as the war drags into its fourth year. Moscow has increasingly turned to foreign troops from areas such as North Korea, the Middle East, and Africa as it launches frequent but costly ground assaults.