{"id":1403667,"date":"2026-07-09T10:21:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T07:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/?p=1403667"},"modified":"2026-07-08T11:42:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T08:42:22","slug":"ukrainian-intelligence-russia-continues-recruiting-foreign-mercenaries-for-war-against-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/ukrainian-intelligence-russia-continues-recruiting-foreign-mercenaries-for-war-against-ukraine\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukrainian Intelligence: Russia Continues Recruiting Foreign Mercenaries for War Against Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":" <p>Ukraine&#8217;s military intelligence says Russia continues to recruit foreign nationals to fight in its war against Ukraine, citing a newly intercepted conversation between Russian servicemen that allegedly involved two mercenaries from Bangladesh.<\/p>\n   <p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/\">UATV English<\/a>, the Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) of Ukraine&#8217;s Ministry of Defense published the intercepted audio on Facebook.<\/p>\n    <blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201cThis is further evidence of Russia&#8217;s use of foreign mercenaries in its criminal war against Ukraine. Military intelligence intercepted a conversation involving a Russian occupier in the Kharkiv region who discovered two frightened Bangladeshis hiding in a wooded area,\u201d the HUR said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n   <p>In the recording, one Russian serviceman tells a fellow soldier that the two men appeared disoriented and had been wandering for several days.<\/p>\n    <blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201cRoma, they don&#8217;t know anything. They don&#8217;t even know their call signs. They&#8217;re from Bangladesh, two of them. Someone named Rubi and Moisel. They&#8217;re showing me a patch with a tiger on it that says \u20186th Assault.\u2019 They keep showing me a photo of the tiger patch. It says \u20186th Assault.\u2019 They&#8217;ve apparently been wandering around for three days\u2014they got lost,\u201d the serviceman says in the intercepted conversation.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n   <p>According to the HUR, the incident illustrates what it describes as Russia&#8217;s continued reliance on foreign recruits.<\/p>\n    <blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201cThe leaders of the Russian occupation army continue to send foreign mercenaries to their deaths just as cynically as they do their own soldiers,\u201d the intelligence agency stated.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n   <p>The interception follows previous reports documenting Russia&#8217;s recruitment of foreign nationals for its military campaign.<\/p>\n   <p>According to a report by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the Ukrainian human rights organization Truth Hounds, Russia has recruited at least 27,000 foreign nationals from more than 130 countries to fight against Ukraine, excluding North Korean troops. The report says the largest number of recruits came from Central Asian countries, while significant numbers were also recruited from South Asia, Africa, and Latin America.<\/p>\n   <p><strong>Read also:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/bundestag-lawmaker-no-interim-status-can-replace-ukraine-s-full-eu-membership\/\">Bundestag Lawmaker: No Interim Status Can Replace Ukraine\u2019s Full EU Membership<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ukraine&#8217;s military intelligence says Russia continues to recruit foreign nationals to fight &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":1324614,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,49,36415,53,36422,55,50],"tags":[76,78,72923],"sources":[],"class_list":["post-1403667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-news-en","category-11473-news-en","category-russia-en","category-11473-news-en-3","category-ukraine-en","category-svit-en","tag-glavnoe-en","tag-homepage-en","tag-frontline-update"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ukrainian Intelligence: Russia Continues Recruiting Foreign Mercenaries for War Against Ukraine - Freedom<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/ukrainian-intelligence-russia-continues-recruiting-foreign-mercenaries-for-war-against-ukraine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ukrainian Intelligence: Russia Continues Recruiting Foreign Mercenaries for War Against Ukraine - Freedom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ukraine&#8217;s military intelligence says Russia continues to recruit foreign nationals to fight ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/ukrainian-intelligence-russia-continues-recruiting-foreign-mercenaries-for-war-against-ukraine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Freedom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-09T07:21:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/military_speaker_1300x750-820x473.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"820\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"473\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Danylo Shportilo\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Danylo Shportilo\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/ukrainian-intelligence-russia-continues-recruiting-foreign-mercenaries-for-war-against-ukraine\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/ukrainian-intelligence-russia-continues-recruiting-foreign-mercenaries-for-war-against-ukraine\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Danylo Shportilo\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/f4fe8d6d08deebcdee69f6671576d2d2\"},\"headline\":\"Ukrainian Intelligence: Russia Continues Recruiting Foreign Mercenaries for War Against Ukraine\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-09T07:21:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/ukrainian-intelligence-russia-continues-recruiting-foreign-mercenaries-for-war-against-ukraine\/\"},\"wordCount\":336,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/ukrainian-intelligence-russia-continues-recruiting-foreign-mercenaries-for-war-against-ukraine\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/military_speaker_1300x750.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"\u0413\u043b\u0430\u0432\u043d\u043e\u0435\",\"\u041d\u0430 \u0433\u043b\u0430\u0432\u043d\u0443\u044e (\u0441\u043b\u0430\u0439\u0434\u0435\u0440)\",\"Frontline update\"],\"articleSection\":[\"\u041d\u043e\u0432\u043e\u0441\u0442\u0438\",\"News\",\"Politics\",\"Russia\",\"Society\",\"Ukraine\",\"World\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/ukrainian-intelligence-russia-continues-recruiting-foreign-mercenaries-for-war-against-ukraine\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/ukrainian-intelligence-russia-continues-recruiting-foreign-mercenaries-for-war-against-ukraine\/\",\"name\":\"Ukrainian Intelligence: Russia Continues Recruiting Foreign Mercenaries for War Against Ukraine - Freedom\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/ukrainian-intelligence-russia-continues-recruiting-foreign-mercenaries-for-war-against-ukraine\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/ukrainian-intelligence-russia-continues-recruiting-foreign-mercenaries-for-war-against-ukraine\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/military_speaker_1300x750.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-09T07:21:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/f4fe8d6d08deebcdee69f6671576d2d2\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/ukrainian-intelligence-russia-continues-recruiting-foreign-mercenaries-for-war-against-ukraine\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/ukrainian-intelligence-russia-continues-recruiting-foreign-mercenaries-for-war-against-ukraine\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/ukrainian-intelligence-russia-continues-recruiting-foreign-mercenaries-for-war-against-ukraine\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/military_speaker_1300x750.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/military_speaker_1300x750.jpg\",\"width\":1300,\"height\":750,\"caption\":\"Photo: gur.gov.ua\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/ukrainian-intelligence-russia-continues-recruiting-foreign-mercenaries-for-war-against-ukraine\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Ukrainian Intelligence: Russia Continues Recruiting Foreign Mercenaries for War Against Ukraine\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/\",\"name\":\"Freedom\",\"description\":\"UATV - UA|TV - International Broadcasting Multimedia Platform of Ukraine\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/f4fe8d6d08deebcdee69f6671576d2d2\",\"name\":\"Danylo Shportilo\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dfea04f04995a5257694c4ef7149b332b4103ac47f1c95f912cddd7a1e2ef4e7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dfea04f04995a5257694c4ef7149b332b4103ac47f1c95f912cddd7a1e2ef4e7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dfea04f04995a5257694c4ef7149b332b4103ac47f1c95f912cddd7a1e2ef4e7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Danylo Shportilo\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/author\/d-shportilo\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Ukrainian Intelligence: Russia Continues Recruiting Foreign Mercenaries for War Against Ukraine - Freedom","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/ukrainian-intelligence-russia-continues-recruiting-foreign-mercenaries-for-war-against-ukraine\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Ukrainian Intelligence: Russia Continues Recruiting Foreign Mercenaries for War Against Ukraine - Freedom","og_description":"Ukraine&#8217;s military intelligence says Russia continues to recruit foreign nationals to fight ...","og_url":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/ukrainian-intelligence-russia-continues-recruiting-foreign-mercenaries-for-war-against-ukraine\/","og_site_name":"Freedom","article_published_time":"2026-07-09T07:21:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":820,"height":473,"url":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/military_speaker_1300x750-820x473.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Danylo Shportilo","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Danylo Shportilo","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/ukrainian-intelligence-russia-continues-recruiting-foreign-mercenaries-for-war-against-ukraine\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/ukrainian-intelligence-russia-continues-recruiting-foreign-mercenaries-for-war-against-ukraine\/"},"author":{"name":"Danylo Shportilo","@id":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/f4fe8d6d08deebcdee69f6671576d2d2"},"headline":"Ukrainian Intelligence: Russia Continues Recruiting Foreign Mercenaries for War Against Ukraine","datePublished":"2026-07-09T07:21:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/ukrainian-intelligence-russia-continues-recruiting-foreign-mercenaries-for-war-against-ukraine\/"},"wordCount":336,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/ukrainian-intelligence-russia-continues-recruiting-foreign-mercenaries-for-war-against-ukraine\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/military_speaker_1300x750.jpg","keywords":["\u0413\u043b\u0430\u0432\u043d\u043e\u0435","\u041d\u0430 \u0433\u043b\u0430\u0432\u043d\u0443\u044e (\u0441\u043b\u0430\u0439\u0434\u0435\u0440)","Frontline update"],"articleSection":["\u041d\u043e\u0432\u043e\u0441\u0442\u0438","News","Politics","Russia","Society","Ukraine","World"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/ukrainian-intelligence-russia-continues-recruiting-foreign-mercenaries-for-war-against-ukraine\/","url":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/ukrainian-intelligence-russia-continues-recruiting-foreign-mercenaries-for-war-against-ukraine\/","name":"Ukrainian Intelligence: Russia Continues Recruiting Foreign Mercenaries for War Against Ukraine - Freedom","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/ukrainian-intelligence-russia-continues-recruiting-foreign-mercenaries-for-war-against-ukraine\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/ukrainian-intelligence-russia-continues-recruiting-foreign-mercenaries-for-war-against-ukraine\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/military_speaker_1300x750.jpg","datePublished":"2026-07-09T07:21:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/f4fe8d6d08deebcdee69f6671576d2d2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/ukrainian-intelligence-russia-continues-recruiting-foreign-mercenaries-for-war-against-ukraine\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/ukrainian-intelligence-russia-continues-recruiting-foreign-mercenaries-for-war-against-ukraine\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/ukrainian-intelligence-russia-continues-recruiting-foreign-mercenaries-for-war-against-ukraine\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/military_speaker_1300x750.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/military_speaker_1300x750.jpg","width":1300,"height":750,"caption":"Photo: gur.gov.ua"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/ukrainian-intelligence-russia-continues-recruiting-foreign-mercenaries-for-war-against-ukraine\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Ukrainian Intelligence: Russia Continues Recruiting Foreign Mercenaries for War Against Ukraine"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/","name":"Freedom","description":"UATV - UA|TV - International Broadcasting Multimedia Platform of Ukraine","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/f4fe8d6d08deebcdee69f6671576d2d2","name":"Danylo Shportilo","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dfea04f04995a5257694c4ef7149b332b4103ac47f1c95f912cddd7a1e2ef4e7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dfea04f04995a5257694c4ef7149b332b4103ac47f1c95f912cddd7a1e2ef4e7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dfea04f04995a5257694c4ef7149b332b4103ac47f1c95f912cddd7a1e2ef4e7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Danylo Shportilo"},"url":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/author\/d-shportilo\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1403667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1403667"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1403667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1403670,"href":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1403667\/revisions\/1403670"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1324614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1403667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1403667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1403667"},{"taxonomy":"sources","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uatv.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sources?post=1403667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}