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Russia has ramped up its recruitment of foreign fighters through a targeted social media campaign, offering citizenship and money to those who join its fight.

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The promise of roles away from the front line are aimed at enticing people to sign up, but experts [like] Sascha Bachmann, a professor in law and security at the University of Canberra, said the promise of safe service was “not true”.

“Russia is trying to close a manpower gap. They sign people up for a promised non-combat role but they then end up as part of Moscow’s meat grinder,” he said.

“It is deception.”

Data sourced by OpenMinds, a defence tech company, shows that by mid-2025, one in three contract announcements posted by Russian government pages was aimed at foreigners.

In total, the number of these posts has risen to more than 4,500 a month from less than 100 in early 2024.

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Dr Bachmann believed the main reason Russia had increased recruitment efforts abroad was because it “has real problems recruiting from within its population”.

Dr Bachmann called it “cognitive domain propaganda”, which he said refers to military activities that are designed to affect the attitude of the public.

“Russia is very interested in having more foreign volunteers … because then they can say they have common power, more boots on the ground. It helps them form a fresh narrative,” he said.

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In one of the social media posts, a phone number is provided and people in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Serbia, Kyrgyzstan, Africa, India and others are encouraged to call.

However, residents of other countries have been targeted too, including China, India, Iraq, Egypt, Yemen, Jordan, Bangladesh and others in Asia, and the Middle East.

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