{
  "id": 10257470,
  "title": "Russia Uses Western Platforms To Recruit Foreigners For The War — Politico",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/27/russia-uses-western-platforms-to-recruit-foreigners-for-the-war",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-27T17:03:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "UATV English",
    "slug": "uatv-english",
    "url": "https://uatv.ua/en/russia-uses-western-platforms-to-recruit-foreigners-for-the-war-politico/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "According to a recent investigation, a network targeting individuals in Africa, Asia, and Belarus is utilizing Western technology to recruit individuals for Russia's war against Ukraine. This report, provided to Politico by Code for Africa, reveals that a Russia-linked mercenary recruitment campaign employed advertising and tracking technologies from Meta and Google to attract potential recruits and evaluate the impact of campaigns targeting workers from some of the world's poorest labor markets. Researchers identified 89 websites, seven social media accounts, and 39 accounts or channels in messaging apps utilized in these operations, with new resources emerging daily. Recruiters specifically target young men facing unemployment or unstable employment, offering significantly higher salaries than what they could earn at home. One advertised job, disguised as a global casting call, promised Black male actors roles in a film set to film in 2025, complete with AI-generated images of Black men in military uniforms. Another ad, sponsored by an organization called \"IRC Russian Bear,\" featured a Black soldier with Russian flags sewn onto a khaki military uniform, offering an immediate $15,000 payment and a monthly salary of $3,000. This investigation also uncovered the use of Western technology in the operation. The main brand hosting the recruitment took place on a server in Amsterdam, while the network's websites were constructed using AI tools from US and Swedish companies. Furthermore, when potential recruits completed questionnaires, data collection software from an Austrian company gathered their personal information before forwarding it to Russia. Despite the Western appearance, the war is being promoted using the tools of the countries that publicly oppose it, according to Code for Africa. The investigation highlights the ease with which Western tech companies could remove the accounts, ads, and services used by these networks, especially as many recruitment sites fail to conceal their activities. Western tech companies, like Meta, have removed over 300 ad campaigns linked to these recruiters. Google's AI-generated search summaries for queries related to these schemes also vary in their presentation of risk warnings depending on the language of the query. The issue of organized foreign recruitment has been discussed at the highest diplomatic levels, with Kenyan Foreign Minister Musalia Mudavadi and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa addressing the problem with Russian leaders.",
  "summary": "According to a new investigation, an online network targeting workers in Africa, Asia, and Belarus is using Western technology and platforms to recruit people for the war on Russia's side against Ukraine. Politico reports this, UATV English relays. A new report provided to Politico by Code for Africa (a nonprofit African network of digital democracy labs) shows that a Russia-linked mercenary…",
  "key_points": [
    "89 websites, 7 social media accounts, 39 messaging app channels identified in operations",
    "Western tech companies removed over 300 ad campaigns linked to recruiters"
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}