At least 3,589 foreign nationals have been killed while fighting for Russia in Ukraine, according to a joint investigation by the BBC Russian Service, Mediazona, and volunteer researchers who maintain a named list of Russian military casualties.
Of that total, 2,304 were North Korean soldiers, whose deaths were identified by the BBC Korean Service through analysis of satellite imagery and photographs of a military memorial in Pyongyang. Another 1,285 came from more than 40 countries, including Ecuador, the United States, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka.
The overall named list of Russian military dead, as of July 10, 2026, contains 233,033 names. Foreigners account for less than 2% of that figure.
The journalists identified three phases of foreign recruitment. From mid-2022 to the end of 2023, prisoners from former Soviet states including Tajikistan and Uzbekistan were recruited en masse. From 2024 to mid-2025, the focus shifted to recruiting citizens of Cuba, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, and Yemen, many of whom were attracted by high payments for signing contracts with Russia's Defense Ministry.
Since mid-2025, according to human rights activists, a new wave has begun: labor migrants from Central Asian countries are being pressured into signing contracts in exchange for lifting entry bans, fast-track citizenship, or canceling deportation orders.
A senior NATO official said that about 24,000 foreign mercenaries from 44 countries are fighting in Russian forces, most of them from African states.
The journalists cited the case of 45-year-old Edson Kamwesigye from Uganda. He arrived in Russia in December 2025, believing he would work as a security guard. In January 2026, he contacted his wife and said he was being sent to the front. A week later, he was killed near Kupiansk. His body could not be returned to his homeland.