00:05For its war in Ukraine, Russia is recruiting foreigners.
00:09I'm choosing this so I don't die of hunger in Cuba.
00:13From far away and economically vulnerable places.
00:17Some knew what they were signing up for, others were deceived.
00:22They end up on the front lines, often being used as cannon fodder.
00:28When the mine exploded, almost everyone was killed.
00:32Their families back home struggled to get information, payments and even the bodies of the deceased.
00:39The worst part of it, body was thrown away in a forest in Russia.
00:46We met with relatives of soldiers from Bangladesh, Kenya and Cuba who went to fight for Russia in Ukraine.
01:09All that remains of Yohan Vyondi Mendoza are these memories.
01:15In this one he's 16 or 17.
01:20Here he's in Moscow already in uniform.
01:24Yohan went to Russia lured by the promise of money.
01:28Money he needed to join his brother Michael in the US where he's undergoing cancer treatment and has no family
01:35support.
01:41Yohan was promised $2,000 a month, a huge sum for Cuba where the average monthly salary is about $20.
01:52Back in 2023 Reuters filmed Yohan along with some other young Cubans who wanted to go to Russia.
02:01Everybody said, I'm choosing this so I don't die of hunger in Cuba.
02:05They knew perfectly well where they were going.
02:07I do too.
02:13In this WhatsApp chat, a recruiter explicitly tells Yohan to sign a contract with the Russian military.
02:19She said, if you agree to everything, send me a photo of your passport. I sent it.
02:26His brother Michael tried to stop him, but in vain.
02:32The next picture I saw of my brother was so painful for me.
02:36He was in a Russian field with snow up to his chest, dressed as a soldier.
02:43He had an EK-47 that was bigger than him.
02:49Once in the army, Yohan tried to escape.
02:52But he was alone in a foreign country, well within the war zone, without a passport.
02:57He didn't know where to go for help.
03:00He told me, you have to get me out of here.
03:05I know I made a mistake, I'm sorry.
03:12Please get me out of here, come quickly.
03:18On this couch in Louisville, hundreds of kilometers away, Michael spent days and nights trying
03:25to help his brother.
03:26Speaking to him almost daily, until one day there were no more calls from Yohan.
03:39On the other side of the world, in western Kenya, Charles Mutoka knows only too well
03:45what Michael is feeling.
03:47His only son, former Kenyan soldier, Oskar Kagola Mutoka, also left for Russia less than
03:54a year ago.
03:56But then he came and told me, Dad, I've secured a job in Russia.
04:03I told him it was very dangerous for him to go to that place because he will end up in
04:09the armed forces.
04:12Whether he knew what he was getting into or not, Oskar did not listen to his father.
04:19His family learned the truth from this photo, the only one Oskar ever sent from Russia.
04:28Oskar died several weeks after that.
04:31His wife, Milka Nelima, and other family members found out through unofficial channels.
04:38Oskar went to very difficult missions, and he was one of those people in the forefront.
04:44And he had a way of coming back.
04:47I didn't believe that he was dead at that time.
04:51I didn't believe.
04:52I still have difficulties up to now.
05:01For months, Oskar's family has been waiting for his body to return home.
05:06The Kenyan government promised to help.
05:09But nothing happened.
05:11In May, they finally held a funeral without the body.
05:15Now they at least have a place to pray for his soul.
05:22But no closure.
05:25The worst part of it is that I cannot even try to imagine.
05:33He is buried or his body was thrown away in a forest in Russia, a country that he had
05:41gone to, very far away.
05:46Oskar's gravestone is a few feet from his mother's.
05:49She died six years ago.
05:51His father is now alone in their family home.
05:57Oskar and Yohan are not the only ones.
06:00Russia is actively recruiting men from the world's most vulnerable communities, says Ilya Nuzov from the International Federation for Human
06:09Rights.
06:10Russia has organized a global system of predatory recruitment targeting foreign nationals for exploitation in its war of aggression against
06:21Ukraine.
06:21This recruitment targets economically, socially, legally vulnerable individuals around the world.
06:29And the means used to recruit those individuals range from enticement to deceit to coercion.
06:38The practice has caused international outrage.
06:41Relatives have taken to the streets around the world, like here in Peru, demanding the return of their loved ones.
06:48Politicians have met with Putin and his ministers.
06:50Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov admits that foreigners are fighting in the war, but calls them volunteers.
07:00Russia doesn't recruit anyone.
07:03Volunteers get involved in this special military operation in full compliance with Russian law.
07:12We asked the Russian Foreign Ministry for more information, but they didn't answer our questions.
07:18In February, Russia reportedly issued a stop-list banning recruitment from certain friendly countries.
07:25In some cases, it has served to diminish and even stop, at least temporarily, the flow of fighters from certain
07:33countries.
07:34But we believe Russia has also a way to kind of avoid that by minimizing recruitment in one place and
07:40then targeting another country more.
07:42And the number of foreigners recruited keeps increasing and not decreasing.
07:46According to Ukrainian intelligence, there are more than 27,000 foreign fighters on the Russian side.
07:53Most come from Central Asia, but there are also fighters from Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia.
08:07Fatima Begun and Akram Mondol from rural Bangladesh have been luckier.
08:12Their only son Arman came back from the war in Ukraine alive.
08:17But his life, his health and his future have been shattered by what he has lived through.
08:25Those scenes still flash before my eyes.
08:28How those people died.
08:30Their eyes and faces disfigured.
08:34Some were blown apart by landmines.
08:41And drones kept striking, one after another.
08:45People's limbs were torn from their bodies.
08:47It was truly horrifying.
08:52Like millions of young Bangladeshis, Arman dreamed of a job abroad to lift his family out of poverty.
09:00His father, a farmer, took out loans and sold plots of land to pay a broker.
09:06Arman went to Russia on a tourist visa.
09:08He was promised a job in food packaging, but was forced to sign a contract with the Russian military.
09:16They treated us very badly.
09:18On the battlefield, we were always placed in the front line while they stayed behind.
09:23Suddenly, they'd use us as human shields and push us forward into the combat zone.
09:30During one such mission, their car drove over a landmine.
09:37When the mine exploded, almost everyone was killed.
09:40Only two of us survived.
09:42The other person's hand and leg were severely injured.
09:46I also hurt my leg.
09:47Then a drone struck the area, injuring my leg again.
09:54His body bears the scars, shrapnel lodged in his leg.
10:01Arman managed to escape the war zone.
10:03But back home in Bangladesh, there is no compensation, rehabilitation or justice for him.
10:12My monthly medical costs are 8,000 to 9,000 taka, 65 to 75 dollars.
10:17How will I afford it?
10:19With my leg like this, I can't earn enough.
10:23All he can do now is roam around the village, where there is no work for him.
10:28And search online for another way to secure his future.
10:36In the US, Michael has also been searching desperately for any sign of his brother alive or dead.
10:44Three months ago, Yohan's name appeared on the list of fallen foreign fighters issued by Ukraine.
10:51I just can't accept it. I can't process that my brother is gone.
10:57Michael shows us the clothes he's been buying for Yohan all these years.
11:04It's all new, bought for him.
11:08Now, instead of buying clothes, he purchased an urn for Yohan's remains.
11:18As the eldest son and a father of five, Oskar was the breadwinner for his family.
11:24He had started to build a house for his father, construction project that will never be finished.
11:32Oskar's family has not received anything, neither from Russia nor from Kenya.
11:38There has been a total compensation.
11:40But for us, I don't think any amount of money will be able to erase the pain that we have.
11:48That pain is shared by hundreds of families in Kenya.
11:53Which war is this? How does it connect with us?
11:57Leave alone Africa. It isn't our Kenyan war.
12:01This is something that they should pay for dearly.
12:04For having taken our sons, Africans, to fight for them, for their own war.
12:12The battlefield in Ukraine might be far away from this peaceful Kenyan village.
12:18But its scars are visible here, as well as in Cuba, Bangladesh and other places where Russia is recruiting for
12:26its war.
12:28No matter what you see, as in Cuba, by Magna.
12:29I think that this is a little more important too.
12:30I think that this is a different tunnel.
12:31You can find that when it's ever рос, we can still be a new tunnel.
12:31Now, you have to be a new tunnel.
12:32Now, you can find the tunnel where we are at our house.
12:32And in this tunnel, we have to be the tunnel.
12:33Let's go to the tunnel.
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