At least 3,589 foreign nationals fighting alongside Russian forces have been killed in the war in Ukraine, including 229 citizens of Uzbekistan, a joint investigation by the BBC Russian Service and independent media outlet Mediazona reveals.
The grim milestone highlights Moscow's heavy reliance on foreign manpower to sustain its frontline operations. Since the full-scale invasion began, citizens from more than 40 countries have died in Russian uniform.
Journalists and researchers have definitively verified the identities of 1,285 of the deceased using open-source intelligence, tracking local official announcements, relatives' social media tributes, and photographs from fresh military burial plots.
The data shows that North Korean personnel suffered the heaviest losses, with 2,304 confirmed deaths. Intelligence reports indicate these casualties spiked sharply in August 2024, when North Korean units deployed to help counter the Ukrainian military's cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region.
Investigators stress that the actual death toll among foreign fighters is likely vastly higher than documented. The current tally relies strictly on public domain evidence and excludes classified data from Ukrainian or Western intelligence agencies.
According to NATO estimates, Russia has successfully recruited approximately 24,000 foreign mercenaries from 44 countries to bolster its ranks, drawing the majority of its volunteers from across Africa and Central Asia.
In response to the influx of its nationals into the conflict, the Uzbek judiciary has significantly tightened its stance on returning fighters. While early cases often resulted in more lenient administrative penalties or house arrests—such as sentences of "restricted freedom" served at home—Uzbek authorities are now handing down severe prison sentences. Under Article 154 of the Criminal Code (mercenarism), returning fighters face immediate arrest and are increasingly sentenced to actual terms of three to six years in penal colonies. Tashkent uses these harsher rulings to deliver a stark warning to its vast migrant labor population in Russia against signing contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense.
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