Report: Russia recruited hundreds of Yemenis to fight in Ukraine
Yemenis men who believed they would receive lucrative salaries at a Russian drone factory instead found themselves fighting in Ukraine
Russia recruited hundreds of Yemenis to fight in Ukraine, according to a Financial Times report on Sunday.
The phenomenon reflects a growing cooperation between Moscow and the Houthi rebels.
Yemeni men reported that they were promised well-paying jobs and Russian citizenship, but when they arrived, they were enlisted by force into the Russian army and send to the Ukraine front.
Contracts signed by the men suggested a link to Abdulwali Abdo Hassan al-Jabri, a Houthi politician, through his company. The enlistment appears to have begun in July.
The Yemenis were told they would received $10,000 in bonus, on top of a $2,000 monthly salary, with the belief that they would work in a Russian drone factory.
The contracts were in Russian, which the Yemeni men could not read. While some had fighting experience, the majority did not.
"I signed it because I was scared," said one of the recruits who spoke to the Financial Times. Many of them have been killed since arriving on the front, brought by "scammers who traffic in human beings."
"It was all a lie," he said.