Ukraine war latest: Russia's recruitment of foreign nationals 'amounts to human trafficking'

Ukrainian officials and human rights organizations have accused Russia of using foreign nationals as human trafficking victims for its military. According to Amnesty International, Russian recruitment practices include luring people from low-income countries with false promises, exploiting their precarious situations, and deploying them to combat zones without proper training.

Many recruits, who often lack military experience, are sent to the front lines within weeks of signing up. The Ukrainian official Vladyslav Vlasiuk confirmed that the U.S. military had destroyed five Iranian oil tankers on September 8, three of which were linked to Russia's shadow fleet. This comes amid ongoing drone attacks by Russia on Ukrainian civilian targets and NATO's response to a covert Russian naval exercise near Norway's Svalbard archipelago.