Ukraine’s count of foreigners identified as having signed Russian military contracts in the first nine months of 2026 surpassed its 2025 total, showing the scale of Russia’s recruitment abroad.
Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters, which coordinates prisoner-of-war treatment, said its “I Want to Live” project counted 16,168 foreign signers from January through September, compared with 16,085 in all of 2025. As of Oct. 1, it had identified 45,959 since 2022.
The tally included citizens of 151 countries and people from unrecognized territories. It counts people identified as having signed contracts, not those still serving. Brigadier General Dmytro Usov, the headquarters’ secretary, presented the figures at the Crimea Global conference in Kyiv on Oct. 19.
Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Belarus had the highest overall totals, the headquarters said. For the first nine months of 2026, it counted 1,449 Colombians, 699 Burundians, 530 Zimbabweans and 503 Peruvians. It also said citizens of 59 countries had been captured by Ukraine since 2022.
Ukraine’s defense intelligence said in April that Russian recruitment offers included money, benefits and citizenship. It alleged that some foreigners also faced pressure tied to their immigration status. In a survey of foreign prisoners of war, the headquarters said 46.7% reported signing a Russian military contract in hopes of obtaining Russian citizenship, while 28% said they had not known they would fight Ukraine. The headquarters did not give the survey’s sample size or method.
The headquarters’ published annual counts add up to 45,291, or 668 fewer than its stated cumulative total. It did not explain the difference.
The headquarters assessed Russia’s plan for this year at 18,500 foreign signers; Ukraine’s defense intelligence cited a plan for about 20,000 in April. Neither assessment of Russia’s plan has been independently confirmed. At an estimated pace of about 1,800 signers a month, the headquarters projected a year-end total of 21,500 if that pace continues. Its next indicator is whether the count reaches 18,500 in November, though it gave no date for an update.
