Radio Programas del Perú (RPP) on Monday denounced the existence of a network trafficking Peruvian men to the front lines of the Russian invasion of Ukraine with false work promises.

RPP interviewed Percy Salinas, a lawyer currently representing roughly 120 families who have denounced to local authorities that their relatives fell victim to the scheme and were falsely sent to the frontlines within weeks of arriving in Russia. Most of the families state that they lost contact with their relatives five weeks ago.

At least eight Peruvian men have so far died in the conflict, Salinas said, and at least five are currently injured and hospitalized at a Russian healthcare facility, with one of them gravely injured, after Ukraine launched a drone attack against Russian forces.

According to Salinas, the trafficking network — allegedly composed by Colombian, Mexican, and Peruvian nationals — operates in Colombia and mainly targets graduates from Peru’s Armed Forces and National Police. The lawyer pointed out that the network presents itself as a recruitment company that has so far changed names six times, which makes identifying and prosecuting those responsible an uphill task.

The lawyer explained that the network presents itself as a company on Instagram and other social media platforms,  advertising purported security, chef, instructors, and other job listings in Russia with wages of up to $4,000 per month and a $20,000 signup bonus.

Peruvian victims are asked to meet with recruiters in public places such as malls or parks where they sign contracts in Russian and surrender their passports, the only document they are told to present. Days later, the victims receive their passports back and are taken to an airport and flown to Russia.

Upon arriving, victims are told by the traffickers that they “owe $20,000” in transport costs. Salinas explained that one of the documents allegedly implies a process to acquire Russian citizenship, which leaves the victims subject to Russian military laws and obligations even if none of them has actually renounced their Peruvian nationality. Within three weeks they are sent to a military indoctrination and training camp.

The lawyer said that eleven more Peruvians allegedly departed from Peru for Russia on Saturday.

Salinas told RPP that the families of the eight deceased Peruvians have been given a six-month deadline to retrieve their relatives’ bodies before their bodies are either buried in a common pit or cremated. He also detailed that he and others are awaiting from a response from the International Red Cross to see if its workers stationed at the war zone have any information that could help determine the current whereabouts and status of other Peruvian men, stressing that it can take several days for his team to validate any information and reports received from the families of the victims.

Alarmingly, Salinas denounced during the interview that, in recent days, a group of ten Peruvians managed to reach the embassy in Moscow, where they remained for ten days, but that they have been removed from the embassy and placed in an apartment. According to Salinas, the embassy cited a lack of budget as the reason for the transfer out of the diplomatic mission.

Since then, the lawyer detailed, Russian officials have surrounded the building seeking to retrieve the Peruvian men and send them back to base.

“Where is the protection that the Peruvian government provides to Peruvians abroad when they enter an embassy, only to find that they have now been placed in an apartment with no security and no protection?” Salinas asked, adding, “right now, the Russians are surrounding the building in order to break in, kidnap these Peruvians once again, and send them to the front lines.”

RPP also spoke with Lila Abarca Pimentel, the wife of Albert Ayala Eguren, a 27-year-old Peruvian man who denounced that he has now been in the frontlines for almost a month after he was deceived by the recruitment network and arrived to Russia on April 1. Abarca Pimentel recounted that her husband was lured with a purported work offer for a private security job at a Russian military base that offered a monthly wage of $2,800 and an initial $20,000 sign-up bonus. No such job ever existed, and none of the promised payments were issued.

Instead, the woman alleged, her husband was forced to sign documents in a language that he did not understand, enlisting him to fight for the Russian army. She further denounced that Ayala Eguren has been subjected to physical abuse under extreme weather conditions, he lacks food, and he had all of his documents, clothing, and other personal belongings taken away when Eguren and others attempted to escape. Russian officials reportedly threatened him with up to 40 years in prison if he tries to abandon the military base again.

“I’m begging you to help us. We’re waiting for a response from the Foreign Ministry, but I’m getting tired of calling, and no one ever answers — especially the Embassy in Russia. Please, I’m asking for your help for my husband,” Abarca Pimentel told RPP.

The situation largely resembles one experienced in Cuba, where, over the past years, the communist Castro regime has aided Russia’s efforts to invade Ukraine by offering Cuban men as mercenaries to fight in the ongoing war. Much like the trafficking network reported by RPP on Monday, Cuban men have been falsely led to Russia under the prospect of purported construction jobs, only for them to end up forced to fight for Russia in the frontlines. The situation prompted the Ukrainian government to shut down its embassy in Havana in protest in October 2025.

Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.