Russia has begun recruiting hundreds of men from Yemen to serve as mercenaries in the fighting in Ukraine. The recruits were brought in through a coordinated operation with the Houthi group in Yemen, in exchange for promises of high-wage employment and even Russian citizenship.
Some were forcibly recruited and sent to the front lines, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.
The report indicates that Yemenis who traveled to Russia said that they were promised to work in fields such as security and engineering, but when they arrived in Moscow, they were forced to sign military contracts in Russian.
They were then transferred to military bases near the Ukrainian border and took part in the fighting, without prior training. One of the recruits, nicknamed Nabil, told the Financial Times that he and other men were taken to combat zones in Ukraine, where they face bombs, landmines and shortages of winter clothing. According to him, some of the recruits tried to commit suicide due to the difficult conditions of service.
