Russia is massively recruiting mercenaries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, — CCD

This is reported by the Telegram channel of the Center for Countering Disinformation (CCD) at the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine.

The agency noted that the special operation aims not only to replenish human resources for the war against Ukraine but also to create parallel militarized channels for hybrid operations - from intelligence and sabotage to political destabilization in regions of traditional U.S. presence.

According to experts, such involvement of citizens from countries economically or politically linked to Washington undermines security mechanisms and trust in allied formats.

"Russia is embedding recruitment chains into criminal ecosystems, particularly in Latin America, which simplifies financing and logistics, and near the U.S. borders creates the risk of ’hot spots’ and forced military responses," the CCD notes.

The agency also provided examples of such recruitment. Recently, a scandal broke out in Kenya after an athlete was deceitfully forced to sign a "contract" with the Russian Ministry of Defence and sent to the front. The country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported several such cases.

Meanwhile, in the Republic of South Africa, there has been mass recruitment of women to factories producing strike drones in Russia’s economic zone "Alabuga" under the guise of legal employment, but in reality, for forced labor.

The CCD noted that such practices are not "anti-colonialism," as the Kremlin is trying to present, but a reproduction of colonial schemes of exploiting people as cheap labor and "cannon fodder". This destabilizes entire regions and undermines international security.