Yemeni men who were recruited into the Russian army and later managed to escape revealed that they had been promised well-paid jobs and Russian citizenship.

However, upon arrival, they were forcibly conscripted into the army and deployed to the front in Ukraine.

Contracts for Yemeni recruits obtained by the FT are linked to a company founded by prominent Houthi politician Abdulwali Abdo Hassan al-Jabri. Al-Jabri’s company is formally registered as a tourism operator and supplier of medical equipment.

The FT spoke with one of the recruits, who was part of a group of around 200 Yemenis conscripted into the Russian army in September. He had been lured to Russia with promises of work in the fields of “security” and “engineering”.

After spending several weeks on the front lines, the mercenary escaped with four other newly arrived Houthis and hid in a forest in Ukrainian-controlled territory. He recounted that one member of their group attempted suicide and was taken to a hospital.

Russia recruits mercenaries from various countries. In the summer of 2023, it was revealed that Nepali residents who had traveled to the Russian Federation for studies were being recruited to fight in Ukraine. The primary motivator for such decisions was financial compensation.

In December of last year, Nepalese authorities issued an official statement calling on Moscow to stop recruiting its citizens for the war and to return the bodies of those killed.

A Somali mercenary in the Russian army, Muhammad Adil, was captured by Ukraine’s Armed Forces in early January 2024. After arriving in Russia, he initially worked in a factory but soon saw an advertisement for the Russian army on the streets.

On December 3, 2023, he signed a contract, and less than a month later, on January 4, 2024, he found himself on the front lines in Ukraine, Ukrainian media reported in May this year.