November 9, 2026
Study Finds Russian Army Recruiters Advertising on Facebook and Instagram to Moldovans and Other Foreigners
The Moldovan civil society group WatchDog.MD says it found paid Facebook and Instagram ads recruiting foreigners into the Russian army, including four ads aimed at Moldova, in a study published on November 2. It reviewed Meta's public Ad Library for June 29 to September 29, 2026, and found 4 ads from three pages targeting Moldova and 86 ads from 18 pages targeting other countries.
"Service for Real Men": 482,000 Lei and Russian Citizenship
In September, three Facebook pages with no apparent link to the military, "Property abu2", "Surprise Hot" and "Elena Vargas", ran the same Romanian-language poster: "Contract service - service for real men". It offered 482,000 lei a year (about $27,000), 37,349 to 47,489 lei a month (about $2,100 to $2,700) and Russian citizenship. The study compares this with Moldova's average gross monthly wage of 16,896 lei (about $950).
The poster linked to a website that described the 482,000 lei as payment "for signing the contract". Its form asked for full name, email, WhatsApp number, confirmation of a valid passport and HIV/AIDS status, and a second button led to a Telegram channel called "Contract with the Russian Army". By the time the study was published, all three pages and their ads had disappeared from the Ad Library.
The study says this was Moldova's second wave of such ads in 2026, after two Russian-language pages advertised recruitment for assault troops in January.
86 Ads Aimed at Other Countries
The ads targeted Belarus, Central Asia, Latin America and French-speaking Africa, and appeared in at least eight languages with amounts converted into local currencies. Two pages, "militares voluntarios" and "Claudia Beawgagck", published 40 of the 86. A total of 56 ads launched in a single week, September 21 to 27.
In Belarus, one ad offered 140,000 Belarusian rubles (about $46,000) for "work behind the front", while another page told Belarusians that "everything is official" and that this is "not mercenary work". In Uzbekistan, an ad offered a bonus of 588 million so'm (about $50,000) for drone assembly work. In Tajikistan, the offer was 378,000 somoni (about $41,000) on signing plus Russian citizenship, and in Kyrgyzstan 3,060,740 som (about $35,000) for service in drone forces. In French-speaking Africa, an ad urged readers to "join the Russian army" for $12,000 on signing and $2,700 a month, with an age limit of 18 to 49. Another ad addressed any foreigner, offering $2,700 to $3,200 a month and up to $27,000 on signing.
The Uzbek ad, from a page called "Kasb o'rganing" ("Learn a trade"), does not mention the army. The website it leads to promises "official recruitment into Russia's drone forces" but also says "participation in combat is excluded". Its form sends candidates' names and phone numbers to a server in Düsseldorf, Germany.
How the Ads Work
According to the study, the ad is the first of four steps: the ad promises money, citizenship or a job, the candidate lands on a website, a Facebook form or a Telegram or WhatsApp chat, a recruiter discusses conditions and travel, and the contract is signed only after the candidate arrives in Russia.
WatchDog.MD says the ads use pages with neutral names, some created the same day as the ad, and pages from a series of more than 450 "Big Win" pages used mostly for online casino ads. Recruiters also put the army references in the image rather than the text, which the study says helps avoid Meta's automated checks. It concludes that this is an organized operation rather than a set of isolated cases.
The study says Meta reacts slowly. The January ads had been running for more than three days when they were found, and the Latin American page posted recruitment ads for more than two months. The study also warns that the data collected by the forms goes to anonymous operators and could be used for pressure.
What Moldova Has Done
Moldova's Foreign Ministry has advised Moldovans in Russia not to sign military documents, and the interior minister says such ads are being monitored, the study says. Under Article 141 of Moldova's Criminal Code, serving as a mercenary carries 5 to 10 years in prison, and recruiting or financing mercenaries 10 to 15 years.
Moldova publishes no figures of its own on citizens recruited, killed or captured. The only numbers available, 857 Moldovans recruited and 81 killed, come from Ukraine's DIU and have been neither confirmed nor denied by Moldovan authorities, according to the study.
A Safe Way Out
Moldovans and other foreign nationals lured into Russia's armed forces have an option to safely escape the battlefield with Ukraine's "I Want to Live" project. See our FAQ for recommendations for victims of Russian military recruitment and their families.