The Kremlin has found a new way to fill its trenches. It’s shopping for Americans.
According to a New York Post report now making the rounds, Russian recruiters are offering U.S. citizens, including former American service members, a signing bonus of about $26,000 plus a monthly salary to fight in Ukraine.
A U.S. M1A1 Abrams tank needed for training the Armed Forces of Ukraine awaits offloading at Grafenwoehr, Germany, May 14, 2023. The M1A1 training is expected to last several weeks and will include live fire, crew qualification, maneuver, and maintainer training. Armed Forces of Ukraine training is conducted by 7th Army Training Command at Grafenwoehr and Hohenfels training areas in Germany on behalf of U.S. Army Europe and Africa. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Christian Carrillo)
Russian T-90M Tank in Ukraine War. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
Ukrainian officials have identified at least 18 Americans who took the deal. The recruiters who bring them in get paid too, about $24,000 a head plus a cut of the recruit’s salary.
That’s the business model in one sentence. Somebody gets rich, and the American gets a rifle and a spot in the next assault wave.
An Entire Industry
Vitaliy Matvienko runs the Ukrainian government’s surrender program for Russian troops, the “I Want to Live” project. He didn’t mince words. “It has become an entire industry and is very profitable,” he said, as quoted by Unilad. “Russia suffers 30,000–40,000 casualties every month, and they are no longer able to cover their losses.”
Take the Ukrainian casualty estimate with the grain of salt any wartime number deserves. However, the direction is right. Russia has burned through manpower at a rate no modern army can sustain on volunteers alone. It emptied its prisons for the Wagner Group early in the war.
It has brought in North Korean troops. It has pulled in recruits from Nepal, Cuba, Africa, and South Asia, and RFE/RL has documented how it lures Chinese citizens with the same kind of cash-and-promises pitch. Ukrainian officials now count nearly 29,000 foreigners from 135 countries in Russian uniform.
Americans are the newest line on the shopping list.
How The Pitch Works
The recruiting happens where everyone’s attention already is: Facebook ads, TikTok videos, and Telegram channels. The targets aren’t random. By Ukrainian accounts, recruiters go after men who are broke, angry, in legal trouble, or who have bought into the idea that Russia is the last defender of traditional values against a decadent West.
For a veteran who got out with a chip on his shoulder and no job lined up, $26,000 up front sounds like a lifeline. It isn’t.
Survivors describe deductions for their own equipment, extortion by their Russian officers, and abuse from the men they fight beside. Families of the dead often never see the compensation they were promised.
The Americans Who Went
Seth William Baker, a former Marine lance corporal and bulk fuel specialist from Gilbert, Arizona, was discharged for refusing the pandemic vaccine. He went to Russia, signed up, and was killed at the front about three months later. He was 23.
Michael Gloss was 21, the son of a senior CIA official. He was killed in April 2024 in eastern Ukraine while fighting for the Russian army. That story made national headlines for obvious reasons.
His family’s grief is real, and it deserves respect. It’s also a reminder that this isn’t only happening to men from one kind of background.
Derek Huffman, 47, moved his family to Russia, complaining about American culture, and then enlisted. Wilmer Puello-Mota, a former Massachusetts city councilor, was wounded by shrapnel in August.
Four very different men all ended up in the same place.
What Cannon Fodder Actually Means
I’ve always thought the phrase “cannon fodder” gets thrown around too loosely. Here it fits exactly.
Russia’s attrition tactics in Ukraine rely on small groups of lightly equipped infantry sent forward to probe Ukrainian positions, draw fire, and reveal where the defenders are.
Drones and artillery do the rest, on both sides. The men in those groups are expendable by design. Foreign recruits who don’t speak Russian, don’t know the unit, and have no one in the chain of command looking out for them are the most expendable of all. Stories are coming out about the Russian officers abusing and threatening their own troops from survivors returning to Russia.
Speaking as a former soldier, nothing about that is soldiering. There’s no training pipeline to speak of, no unit cohesion, and no plan to bring you home. You’re a line item on a recruiter’s invoice. A $26,000 bonus doesn’t mean much when your job is to be the first man Ukrainian drone operators see.
Don’t Take The Bait
The State Department’s travel advisory for Russia is already at Level 4, “Do Not Travel,” its highest. It warns of arbitrary detention and wrongful arrest of U.S. citizens.
Americans who show up to fight have even fewer protections. If you’re captured by Ukraine, you’re a prisoner of war at best. If you die, your family may never get your body back, let alone the money.
Say what you want about the politics of this war. That’s beside the point. No American veteran should be selling his life to a foreign army for the price of a used pickup truck.
To anyone scrolling past one of those Telegram ads, the math is simple. The recruiter makes $24,000 whether you come home or not.
Do the math: Russia can’t fill its trenches with its own people anymore, and for a good reason. They are suffering a ridiculous number of casualties, as we’ve often written about here.
The Russian government planned on a heavy mobilization of reserves in 2022, and military-age men fled the country in the tens of thousands to stay out of the meat grinder in Ukraine. It couldn’t field enough troops, so they relied on releasing convicts from prison, North Korean “volunteers,” and other foreigners, lured by the promise of cash, most of whom will never live to spend it.
It shouldn’t get to fill them with ours.
About the Author: Steve Balestrieri
Steve Balestrieri is a National Security Columnist. He served as a US Army Special Forces NCO and Warrant Officer. In addition to writing on defense, he covers the NFL for PatsFans.com and is a member of the Pro Football Writers of America (PFWA). His work was regularly featured in many military publications.
