Russia has recruited Americans as well as thousands of other foreigners to fight in Ukraine, as Moscow looks to the world for manpower after over four years of huge battlefield losses.
At Least 18 Americans Enlisted With Moscow
Tu-160 Bomber from Russia. Image Credit: Creative Commons
Tu-160 Bomber Russian Air Force. Image Credit: Russian State Media.
The New York Post reported Monday that Ukrainian intelligence has identified 18 Americans who enlisted to fight with Russian forces.
American recruits have been offered signing bonuses of about $26,000 and roughly $2,000 a month, the report said, although Russian payments vary drastically by region.
Vitaliy Matvienko, who runs Ukraine’s “I Want to Live” surrender project, told the Post that foreign recruitment had become “an entire industry and is very profitable.”
The American cases are part of a much larger program.
In April, Brig. Gen. Dmytro Usov of Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said Ukrainian authorities had identified 28,391 foreigners from 136 countries who had signed up for Russian forces.
“Currently, we have the figure of 28,391. And it is growing,” Usov said, noting the figure was based on identified individuals, and not an estimate.
Ukrainian authorities said at least 5,149 identified foreign recruits had died and another 3,080 remained in Russian service after their contracts were supposed to expire.
Those numbers have not been independently verified.
But evidence that at least some foreigners have been recruited deceptively now extends beyond Ukrainian intelligence claims.
Fake Job Offers
Amnesty International said in an investigation released Sept. 10 that Russia had used coercion, fraudulent job offers and misleading promises of noncombat employment to recruit foreigners into the military.
Secretary General Agnès Callamard said Russia was exploiting economically vulnerable recruits as “cannon fodder in the war of aggression against Ukraine.”
One Sri Lankan interviewed by Amnesty described getting to the battlefield after believing he would work as a cook. “You do not see Ukrainian soldiers, only drones,” he said.
A Brazilian recruit told Amnesty that when he tried to leave upon his arrival in Moscow, a commander warned: “If you try to escape, you will either go to jail, or we will kill you.”
The Americans Who Joined Russia
Not all Americans seem to have been recruited by deception.
Former U.S. Marine Seth William Baker explained his own decision to enlist to serve in a military video circulated by pro-Russian Telegram channels in 2024.
Marine Corps records show that a Seth William Baker was a lance corporal and bulk fuel specialist from 2019 to 2022.
The man in the video said the military’s pandemic vaccine mandate influenced him after he refused vaccination.
19FortyFive cannot confirm whether Baker is the man in the footage.
“There’s all this talk about freedom in America, but not for some of us, I suppose,” Baker said.
The Post reported that Baker was subsequently killed while serving with Russian forces, although neither the Kremlin nor Washington has confirmed this.
Serious Crime Suspect Fled U.S.
Another American, former Air Force and Massachusetts Air National Guard member Wilmer Puello-Mota, fled the United States while facing criminal charges and resurfaced in Russia.
The Associated Press reported in 2024 that his attorney said his client informed him he had joined Russia’s military.
Russian Defense Ministry footage later showed him serving as a drone operator.
“I don’t consider myself a traitor,” Puello-Mota said. “The United States and Russia are not at war.”
Derek Huffman, an American who moved his family to Russia after complaining about what he called “LGBT indoctrination” in the United States, also enlisted, partly to expedite his family’s path to citizenship.
His wife, DeAnna, later said the family had hoped his construction and welding experience would lead to a safer assignment.
Instead, she said, “He feels like he’s been thrown to the wolves.”
Russia Still Needs Soldiers
The call for new soldiers comes at a time of particularly high losses.
Britain’s Chief of the Defense Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, told the BBC this month that Russia has already suffered nearly 1.5 million personnel casualties in the conflict, including more than half a million fatalities, since the beginning of the invasion in February 2022.
Moscow does not regularly report comparable statistics.
President Vladimir Putin has ordered another expansion of Russia’s armed forces, increasing the authorized number of active-duty personnel by 15,500 to 1.55 million. The decree follows a similar one issued in August.
Putin strongly denied weeks ago that another mobilization was being prepared, calling such rumors “utter nonsense,” and a “media attack.”
This combination of generous financial benefits, citizenship, and, in some cases, documented fraud, has led to a surge in demand for foreigners to fight in Ukraine.
About the Author: Georgia Gilholy
Georgia Gilholy is a journalist based in the United Kingdom who has been published in Newsweek, The Times of Israel, and the Spectator. Gilholy writes about international politics, culture, and education. You can follow her on X: @llggeorgia.
