Peruvians say they were promised jobs in Russia, but landed on the front lines in Ukraine

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https://edition.cnn.com/2026/06/28/americas/russia-ukraine-peruvian-fighters-latam-intl

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Several countries have raised an outcry over Russian recruitment. Kenya’s foreign minister flew to Moscow in March to demand that Russia stop recruiting Kenyans, describing the pipeline bringing Kenyan citizens to Russia as a human trafficking ring. Russia’s embassy in Nairobi called the allegations “dangerous and misleading” in a statement to Deutsche Welle.

Sounds like you have to stop flights to Russia.

After thousands of Nepalese citizens volunteered to fight for Russia, Nepal banned any travel to Ukraine or Russia for work.

Just like that.

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Russia has been doing this for year now, how are people still falling for it?

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Ukraine stuff only really makes noise in the West (which does not include Latin America). Most other places don’t care about the war, so related information doesn’t make the rounds either.

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Do people not research even a little bit about what’s going on in the country that they are going to work? Like is there any problems that they can face, especially if they obviously know that they are in a war right now, and don’t know local language and laws.

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Russia has an infamously capable propaganda sector and Peruvians have seen the bad side of US-American and European empires. It doesn’t strike me as too unreasonable that a desperate person could be convinced that news sources from those countries can’t be trusted and the Russian media can.

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Probably a little bit, but “you’ll get drafted into the Russian army” is going to seem too outrageous to be true, especially since Russian propaganda will absolutely be saying it is.

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Well, sometimes you find yourself somewhere you wouldn’t go and you gotta do what you gotta do.

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I guess it’s not super clear, but not everyone is born in a place they would go to was the implication.

I was not suggesting Latinos were some sort of magical elf race.

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Usually when you live in South America you don’t find yourself in r*ssia suddenly.

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You expect uneducated people with no future to be in a position to pay attention to the news?

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Most people don’t read news from the other side of the world.

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Well if they perish in battle, I guess the gene pool gets a little cleaner.

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…. Ew. That’s a gross sentiment.

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I guess. I feel the same about MAGA. The leopard keep eating their faces.

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Yeah, that’s the job: fodder.

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Professional drone catcher!

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I’m conflicted. On one hand, I feel sorry for people whose living conditions are so poor that they need to look for work in a foreign country. I understand that they have been lied to and are victims of a massive propaganda campaign.

On the other hand, my brain is screaming Don’t join the military in a war-torn country, especially one that has used its own people as cannon fodder!

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You are likely an educated person who grew up with opportunities. These people have neither and there will never be a possibility of it happening for them. They are easy to prey upon.

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It’s baffling anybody believes these Russian recruiters.

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“The enemy (Russia) of my enemy (USA) must be my friend” thing at play here

spoiler

Except of course Trump and Putin are more buddy-buddy (or even master-servant) behind closed doors, but that’s a recent development compared to a century of US hegemony in the Americas

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