Three Dominican men posted a video last week begging to be rescued from Russia after they say they were tricked into fighting for the Russian military in Ukraine.
The unnamed soldiers claimed they were lured to Russia with fake job offers and then conscripted into the army, sending them to the front lines of the four-year-old war. Dominican nationals are required by law to seek government permission before joining another country’s armed forces and can lose their citizenship for doing so without approval.
“We were deceived, contrary to what is being said, that we came here knowing what we were getting into,” one of the soldiers said in the video. “That’s a lie. We were brought here under an employment contract – to work.”
The men did not reveal when they arrived in Russia, how they were recruited, what training they received, or how much they were paid. They also did not specify what jobs they believed they would be doing.
One soldier described brutal conditions on the battlefield, alleging Russian forces have treated them as “slaves” while they face Ukrainian drone attacks. “When those people send us to the front, there are drones that show no mercy to anyone,” he said. “When one of them crashes into you – boom! It blows you to bits, shredding you into tiny, bite-sized pieces.”
The men claimed that on average only two out of every 100 soldiers survive their missions.
Carlos de Pérez, a representative for the eastern resort town of La Romana, had warned on Sept. 17 that at least 13 young men in his area were contacted through social media with false job offers for positions like cooks, welders, or mechanics in Russia. “They are already in the hands of Russian personnel; they are being prepared, undergoing examinations, and will be sent to the battlefront,” he said at the time.
The soldier in the video pointed to other countries that have successfully extracted their citizens from Russia. Fighters from Perú, Panamá, and India already were pulled out and repatriated, he said. Panama’s Foreign Relations Ministry arranged the return of 17 Panamanians, including 11 who fought on the Russian side. Peru managed the return of 50 of its citizens, including four young men who escaped a Russian training center. The Indian government secured the release of 139 nationals who went to Russia to join the army.
“The only ones who don’t have the benefit of people having mercy on us are us – the Dominicans,” the soldier said.
Dominican Republic Foreign Relations Minister VÃctor Ito Bisonó said Thursday he met with Alexey Seredin, Russia’s ambassador in the Dominican Republic, and revealed that 30 Dominicans had signed contracts to join the war. “We have instructed our ambassador in Russia to retain Russian legal counsel so that – within the framework of the laws under which the individual contracts were signed – we can explore potential options for follow-up and possible solutions,” Bisonó said.
The three men in the video urged President Luis Abinader to intervene on their behalf.
