«I Want to Live»: every tenth person captured in Ukrainian captivity is not a Russian citizen

Radio Liberty, citing the Ukrainian state project of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War “I Want to Live”, writes that by September 2026 foreigners made up 10% of prisoners of war in Ukrainian captivity. At the end of December 2025, according to the project, their share was 7%, and in the first nine months of 2026 there were more foreigners in captivity than in all of 2025.

Among the prisoners of war, the project names citizens of Argentina, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Honduras, Vietnam, Mongolia, and other countries. In total, “I Want to Live” claims, as of September 2026 there were foreigners from 55 countries among the prisoners.

The project also claims that it has identified the names of nearly 29,000 foreigners who signed contracts with Russia’s Ministry of Defense since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. For 2026, according to its version, the Russian Ministry of Defense planned to recruit another 18,500 foreigners.

The message says that recruiters are enlisting “volunteers” mainly in poor countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. There the project also offers this assessment: “Russia tells its citizens fairy tales about the whole world fighting against them. Meanwhile, it is sweeping up people from all over the world to send them to die for Putin’s desire to bomb Ukrainian cities”.

Sources

• Radio Liberty