March 28: Foreign soldiers captured by Ukraine said they traveled to escape poverty from homes in Asia, the Caribbean and Africa but were tricked into fighting for Russia on the front lines, AFP reported.

According to the French news agency, eight prisoners of war from Cuba, Nepal, Sierra Leone and Somalia said during a recent press event organized by Ukrainian officials that they were lured with promises of high wages, non-frontline roles or simply tricked.

Ukraine defined the men as “mercenaries” from the “global South” and said they were treating them the same as Russian POWs. While the men said they spoke of their own free will, they were escorted by masked guards who listened as they spoke to journalists, AFP added.

A 35-year-old Cuban man with dreadlocks said he had responded to a Facebook post offering construction work in Russia. “I didn’t think I was coming to the war,” AFP quoted him as saying.

A man from Sierra Leone reportedly wiped away tears, saying he had paid a recruiter and flown to Russia for a “good job” to support his large family but had not wanted to join the military. The security guard said he only realized after signing Russian-language paperwork that he had joined the army.

According to Petro Yatsenko, spokesman for a Ukrainian office responsible for prisoners of war, Russia has been recruiting soldiers from very low-income countries. “When the Russians offer such people $2,000 a month and say that they will actually be used as bodyguards or on the third line from the front, they are very tempted,” he told AFP.

Russia has turned to foreign fighters after running low on mercenaries from the Wagner group and ex-prisoners, Yatsenko said. “The percentage of mercenaries is growing” as “Russia’s mobilization resource is declining,” he said.

According to AFP, a 32-year-old man from Nepal said he had watched TikTok videos about Nepalis joining the army, saying his motivation was “of course about the money.”

AFP reporters in India and Nepal have investigated such recruitment, finding it is often done through informal intermediaries and promotional videos posted on social media. Applicants lacking military experience were initially told they will receive non-combatant roles and the option of permanent residence. But in reality they receive basic weapons training and are deployed to the front line, the news agency further reported.

The Government of Nepal has claimed five of its citizens are prisoners of war in Ukraine and at least 12 have been killed. It has banned citizens from working in Russia or Ukraine and asked Russia to return recruits.

The only prisoner in Kyiv to speak basic Russian, according to AFP, was a 24-year-old Nepali with hands so scarred by war-inflicted burns that he struggled to hold a pen. He said he was studying and working in Russia when he spotted recruitment posters, expecting to become a “security guard or something like that.” Meanwhile, the CNN reported citing multiple sources that more than 15,000 Nepali citizens have joined the Russian army. -- Agencies