By Olha Hembik | 2025-10-03

WARSAW -- Belarus, a nation smaller than Moscow, is quietly feeding its sons to the Kremlin's front lines.

In the "cannon fodder" units of the Russian military, passports don't matter. Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, Russia has been recruiting Belarusian nationals to bolster its troops. Nearly 600 Belarusians signed contracts with the Russian army in the first half of this year, according to Ukrainian estimates.

The Ukrainian public initiative I Want to Live, originally created as a service for Russian soldiers seeking to surrender voluntarily, has documented this trend.

Earlier, it released a list of 742 Belarusian mercenaries who have fought -- or are still fighting -- against Ukraine. At that time, the group confirmed at least 96 deaths among them.

"Belarus... is closing its eyes to the fact that thousands of its citizens and immigrants are marching to their deaths for a few thousand dollars," the initiative said on Facebook.

Activists argue that the Belarusian regime is sacrificing its own people to the Kremlin as a show of loyalty to "the empire whose money and bayonets are today ruling the country." They also warned that Russia is systematically eroding Belarus's national identity, language and culture.

Soldiers condemned to death

Maxim, a Belarusian from the Gomel region, was diagnosed in first grade with an "intellectual disability" and "delayed mental development." Unable to continue his education, he scraped by on odd jobs and occasional work at Russian construction sites, according to an August report by Nasha Niva.

An ad promising a contract to fight in Ukraine changed his life. The payment -- 3 million RUB, more than €31,000 -- "made his head spin," the outlet said. He trained for two weeks and became a soldier, despite earlier being rejected by the Belarusian army because of his diagnoses.

A villager told Nasha Niva that Maxim "was brainwashed" and now fights in a Russian storm unit "in the violent Donbas."

The Ukrainian initiative I Want to Live said Russia recruits for its "cannon fodder" units worldwide, especially from poor regions. But only in Belarus "the authorities don't do anything to prevent Russia from using Belarusians as doomed soldiers."

Although Belarusian law punishes mercenary activity with up to seven years in prison, no cases have been opened against Belarusians fighting for Russia since 2014, the group said.

Mykhailo Strelnikov, founder of the Museum of Victory over Despotism in Poland, told Kontur that Russian President Vladimir Putin treats Belarus as a mobilization resource.

"For Russia, Belarus has become a staging ground where it can do whatever it wants. Belarus is not an independent state. It's more of an appendage," he said.

Strelnikov said Belarusian mercenaries also serve propaganda purposes, reinforcing Moscow's claim that "brotherly peoples are fighting Nazis in Ukraine, united by a common goal."

I Want to Live argued this effectively legalizes mercenary work in Russia's ranks and shows Belarusian authorities are indifferent to their own people.

Nothing to quarrel over

Between February 24, 2022, and early July 2025, 1,031 Belarusians signed contracts with the Russian army, Slidstvo.Info reported, citing Ukrainian military intelligence. Of those mobilized, 105 have been killed and 84 are missing -- "very likely that nearly one in five has died," the outlet wrote on September 11.

Recruitment has accelerated sharply. Only six Belarusians signed contracts in 2022, compared with 235 in 2023 and 518 in 2024. The figure in the first half of 2025 alone was 100 times higher than in the first year of the war. Volunteers include former laborers, ex-law enforcement agents and service members, as well as people with criminal records, who make up nearly half.

The Coordinating Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War told Slidstvo.Info that Belarusians rank fourth among foreign fighters captured in Russian ranks, after Uzbeks, Tajiks and Nepalese. The mobilization has unsettled Ukrainians with family ties in Belarus.

Oksana Melnyk, who lives in Ukraine's Volyn region near the border, said her Belarusian relatives dismissed her warnings when Russia invaded.

"It was like they were different people. The lies that were on television had done their job," she told Kontur.

Melnyk now fears her nephew, a 24-year-old pursuing a military career in Belarus, could end up fighting against Ukrainians.

Vladyslav Seleznyov, a military correspondent and former spokesman for the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said I Want to Live is one of the best ways for Belarusians to save their own lives after they end up in the Russian military.

"This initiative should be supported, [contact information and phone numbers] should be distributed among Russian service members who really do want to live," Seleznyov told Kontur.

He said one way to reach doubters is to share videos showing humane conditions for prisoners in Ukrainian custody.

"The Ukrainian and Belarusian peoples have never been enemies. We have nothing to quarrel over. Don't let the Russian nativists use you for their purposes," I Want to Live said in a message to Belarusian mercenaries. The group added that calling its hotline can help Belarusians "return to their families alive and unharmed."