15 October 2026, 16:38
On the sidelines of the 24th Autumn Meeting of the OSCE PA, an event was held on the initiative of the Ukrainian and US delegations to the Assembly, with the support of the Ukrainian human rights organization Truth Hounds.
The purpose of the event was to draw the attention of the OSCE participating States to the issue of russia's recruitment of foreign citizens into its army and, consequently, into its armed aggression against Ukraine.
In view of the OSCE mandate, special attention was paid to Central Asian countries, with various sources indicating that at least 13,000 natives of this region are serving in the ranks of the armed forces of the russian federation. At the same time, according to the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, the total number of such foreign citizens reaches at least 28.5 thousand.
The event was opened by the Head of the Ukrainian Delegation, Vice-President of the Parliamentary Assembly Mykyta Poturaiev, and member of the US Delegation, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse.
The keynote speakers included representatives of Truth Hounds (legal expert Andrii Latsyba, affiliated researcher Mariia Tomak) and representative of the non-governmental organization FIDH Ilya Nuzov, who are co-authors of the first large-scale study on russian "predatory recruitment," which notably provides its legal assessment. Kyrgyz journalist Adil Turdukulov, author of investigations into the recruitment of Kyrgyz citizens, and representatives of Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War also joined the event online.
The speakers presented the scale and dynamics of the recruitment of foreign citizens into the russian army, the regional distribution of such cases, a legal evaluation of "predatory recruitment," and indicators of human trafficking in recruitment cases. Despite a significant number of individuals joining voluntarily, in many instances people end up in the russian military as a result of manipulation or coercion.
Based on the outcomes of the discussion, participants were presented with recommendations for OSCE participating States on countering russian recruitment of foreign nationals, alongside an outline of security and human rights risks and measures to mitigate them.