"Classic mercenaries" or "cannon fodder": how people from Central Asia end up in the war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine

 

"These are people who were either forced to leave or those who decided to earn money. Accordingly, such are classic mercenaries".

 

"Russia has been and remains an important partner for Uzbekistan in the economic, especially migration, and even military spheres".

 

"4 percent of this mass of prisoners come from other nationalities".

 

In mid-December, members of the National Guard of Ukraine captured an Uzbek citizen who was fighting for the Russian occupation forces in the Zaporozhye region. It turned out that dozens of people from Central Asian countries are participating in Russia's war against Ukraine.

Why do they agree to fight against Ukraine? How many of them were in Ukrainian captivity? But what are Central Asian labor migrants doing in occupied Mariupol - read more in the material of the Radio Liberty project "News from Azov".

Rovshanbek Rozmetov, a Kiev lawyer with more than 20 years of experience, could not change his field of activity even now. At the beginning of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, he had three minor children. But the lawyer decided not to defend in court, but to defend Ukraine.

“I made a decision for myself that I would defend Ukraine - the homeland of my children, wife, my friends, acquaintances in Ukraine. Especially since it was not Ukraine that attacked the Russian Federation, but the Russian Federation that attacked Ukraine. Our job is, let's put it this way, to protect the country where I formed a family, where my children were born. Of course, I will defend this country to the end,” the man explained his decision to join the ranks of the Armed Forces.

Rovshanbek Rozmetov is an ethnic Uzbek from Turkmenistan. He first came to Ukraine in the late 1980s as a conscripted Soviet soldier. He stayed here. Now the lawyer's former clients are helping the defense attorney buy the necessary equipment for the front.

“In the first campaign, we were just a target for the enemy. Having a lot of artillery weapons, they (the Russian occupiers - ed. author) simply attacked us, and we were just a target and in a hopeless situation. We didn't know how to fight such an enemy. We had nothing but machine guns and bullets. And then they started using drones. So I turned from an infantryman into a drone pilot. Because it is effective. Effectively repel attacks, conduct reconnaissance. "From 2024, in the direction of Kharkiv, we are causing great damage to enemy units, personnel and equipment," said Rozmetov.

 

From a Moscow restaurant to the front in the infantry

 

Rozmetov is not the only Central Asian citizen fighting on the Ukrainian side. For example, Radio Liberty's Kazakh service spoke about Zasulan Duysembin, a Kazakh who moved to Ukraine three years before the full-scale invasion and later joined the ranks of the Armed Forces..

 

But mostly the media talk about migrants from Central Asia who are recruited by Russia and sent to the war against Ukraine.

Thus, in mid-December 2024, National Guard soldiers captured a citizen of Uzbekistan in the Zaporozhye region. Previously, this man worked as a cook in Moscow, exclusively for the "Novosti iz Azov" project, says Artem Šoludko, officer of the 4th operational battalion of the Spartan Brigade.

"One day this resident of Central Asia got into a fight with the manager of the restaurant where he worked. The manager contacted the police. A team of Russian police arrived and presented him with a choice. The conflict resulted in physical injuries. And our hero, so to speak, was offered a choice - either two years in prison, or a one-year contract in the ranks of the armed forces of the Russian Federation, in the command zone, as they say, "SVO" (special military operation - that's how the Russian leadership calls the war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine - prim. aut.). They additionally motivated him with money - and he agreed almost immediately," says Šoludko.

The man initially served as a cook at the command and observation post of the Russian army. But due to a lack of personnel, the Russian army transferred him to the infantry and sent him to storm Ukrainian positions, Šoludko says.  

"The composition of his group consisted of four soldiers. It happened that he managed to be captured and reached our front himself. On the first day after the task, and the task was given to him without any operational situation, without any additional information, he was simply indicated in which direction he should wait. Then they showed him the direction, where to attack and which positions to take. An enemy raiding party has come out to meet us - and they have already been discovered and hit on the approaches. I want to point out that the group passed without radio contact. That is, he received a radio station and two additional batteries for it, but no one instructed anyone how to use the radio station," said a Ukrainian military officer.

According to the officer, the mercenary decided to surrender, especially because of the conflict with the commander. The roots of this conflict are the events of several hundred years ago.

"It turned out that the leading officers of the enemy unit were Kalmyks (a Western Mongolian people who settled in the Volga region at the beginning of the 17th century - author's note). And if you delve into history, the Kalmyks and the inhabitants of Central Asia had problems in the 18th century," explained the military officer.

Šoludko also said that his battalion captured a significant number of Russian soldiers during the war, including a significant number of foreigners.

"Percentally, I can say that 40 percent of that mass of prisoners are representatives of foreign nationalities," added Šoludko.

Back in April 2023, it was announced that the National Security Committee (NSC) of Kazakhstan was investigating 10 criminal cases against citizens of that country in connection with their participation in the war in Ukraine.

 

Dozens of Central Asian citizens held captive - Ministry of Justice

Central Asia is a region with a population of more than 80 million people. In addition to Uzbekistan, it also includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. For decades, citizens of Central Asian countries have been accustomed to traveling to Russia to earn money. According to the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, as of September 1, 2024, almost four million Central Asian migrants lived in the country.

After the start of the full-scale invasion, the Russian authorities began recruiting migrants for the war against Ukraine. Since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian army has captured about 30 citizens of Central Asian countries. This was reported by the Minister of Justice of Ukraine Olha Stefanishina in response to a request from the editor of Novin Priazovya. How Russia is forcing migrant workers to participate in the war, Petro Yatsenko, spokesman for the Coordination Headquarters for the Exchange of Prisoners of War, told Novin Priazovya.

"This practice of recruiting foreigners to serve in the Russian armed forces of the invading army is very common, because they lack "cannon fodder". That is, assault units, which suffer the greatest losses. These are representatives of post-Soviet countries, who in one way or another have already been, have already lived, for example, on the territory of the Russian Federation, who worked somewhere, but were either forcibly recruited, i.e. allegedly committed some crimes or had some debts. These are people who were either forced to go (to fight) or those who decided to earn money, because we know that the Russians pay a lot right away for signing a contract. Accordingly, these are such classic mercenaries. They are completely ignorant, they go to earn money. This is, of course, manipulation by the Russian Federation, which organizes this, because the duration of such an assaulter's stay at the front is not measured in days, or even months, and they do not have time to earn much during that time. "Those who are in captivity at that time are sure that they will be charged something there, some money," said the spokesperson for the Coordination Headquarters.

 

"Nobody needs prisoners"

 

Citizens of Central Asian countries in captivity are no different in status from Russian prisoners of war, explains Justice Minister Olga Stefanishina in a response to a request from the Priazov newspaper. Ukraine is trying to exchange them for its captured fighters. But, says Petro Yatsenko, a spokesman for the Coordination Headquarters, Russia does not want to exchange even members of its own army, let alone foreigners.

According to the Coordination Headquarters, five camps have already been built in Ukraine to hold captured occupiers.

"Their fate is not enviable, because it turns out that they are not needed by their countries of origin, nor by Russia, which hired them for money or forced them to fight for money. And we do not need them either, because our goal is not to keep them and spend taxpayers' money on them, but to exchange them for our captured soldiers, and as soon as possible. "Since the conditions of stay in our country are controlled by the International Committee of the Red Cross, with all the rules of the Third Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War and the conditions in Russian prisons, they are not comparable. Therefore, in fact, those who join the Russian army from such countries must

 

understand where they are going and what they have signed up for and what the consequences will be," said Yatsenko.  

 

Without a strict punishment at home?

The authorities of the Central Asian countries interpret the participation of their citizens in the war in Ukraine as a crime, regardless of whose side they fight on. For example, the Criminal Code of Uzbekistan has an article on "hiring", that is, participation in an armed conflict in a foreign country. Those guilty face a sentence of five to 10 years in prison. But recently, the courts in this country have been reluctant to send mercenaries behind bars.

For example, in December, the Andijan city court sentenced a former participant in the war against Ukraine to four years and two months in prison, the local portal Gazeta.uz reported, citing a court decision. According to the sentence, the convicted person will remain at large, but will not be allowed to leave the house except for the time necessary for work and study. He will also not be able to change his address without the permission of regulatory authorities.

In court, the defendant confessed to the murder of more than 10 Ukrainian soldiers. However, despite this, the judge found mitigating circumstances in his case. Namely, the fact that the mercenary has three minor children and that he sincerely repented for the crime he committed, local media write.

Tolkun Umaraliyev, editor-in-chief of the regional department of Radio Liberty in Central Asia, explained to "Novosti Priazovia" why mercenaries in Uzbekistan avoid severe punishments.

"Perhaps the leniency of the sentence is connected with at least two factors. This is what the experts we spoke to say. The first factor is political pressure from Russia. Russia has been and remains an important partner for Uzbekistan in the economic, especially migration and even military spheres, which most likely influences decisions in similar cases. Because these are, after all, politically colored matters. And the second reason, as mentioned in court decisions, may be social or humanitarian. The judges could have taken into account mitigating circumstances - voluntary return. It seems that in both of these cases, in the case of Uzbekistan, it was emphasized that people came with a confession of their own accord. Or maybe it was the pressure they were under in Russia, or the presence of family and children. "The experts we spoke with on these topics also paid attention to the other side of this issue - why, for example, do Uzbek judges rank the children of mercenaries higher than the children of killed Ukrainians, are there any ethical and moral justifications or reasons for this at all?" Umaraliyev noted.

This is not the first person convicted in Uzbekistan for participating in the war against Ukraine. In September 2024, it became known that an Uzbek who served in the private mercenary army "Wagner" was sentenced to four years in prison, and in October another citizen of Uzbekistan was sentenced to three years in his homeland for participating in the war on the side of Russia.

A military officer of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, a drone operator Rovshanbek Rozmetov says that he saw on the screen of his control panel how the occupiers killed Ukrainian prisoners of war. He, too, knows what damage Ukrainian attacks cause to the Russian army. Therefore, he advises people from Central Asia to refrain from participating in the war.

 

"There is no need to go to Ukraine for money, to fight with Ukraine. Because, first of all, you will not earn this money, but you will die. I would say so. I myself see every day how they climb towards us like cockroaches - infantry. We simply destroy them," says Rozmetov.

 

Not only in war

 

Russia uses Central Asian migrants in Ukraine not only as military mercenaries, but also as labor. In March 2024, the Center for National Resistance reported that about 100,000 immigrants from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan live in the occupied territories of Ukraine. In particular, they began to move to Mariupol after the capture of the city, Roman Amelyakin, a member of the Mariupol City Council, told "Noviny Priazovya".

"They are used on construction sites. In 2022-2023, destroyed houses were actively demolished in Mariupol, and new ones were built. There were many citizens from these countries in the city. As for participation in the occupation army, these are isolated cases. As for civilian specialists, civilian workers, there were quite a few of them. And a lot of conflicts in the city itself were connected with them. Currently, the pace of recovery and the pace of construction have decreased many times. Therefore, accordingly, "There are now many fewer of these workers. The decrease in the number of citizens from these countries is now being noted by local residents," Amelyakin said.

Given the hostilities and Russian occupation of parts of southern Ukraine, the editorial staff cannot obtain official confirmation of some of the statements made or independently verify them.