"I Only Needed a Passport": Central Asian POWs in Ukraine Describe How Administrative Pressure and False Promises Replaced Choice

Novastan, a French and German-language media outlet specializing in Central Asia, gained rare access to Central Asian prisoners of war held in Ukrainian detention facilities and published their accounts on June 15, 2026. The testimonies reveal a recruitment dynamic distinct from the African cases - less outright deception, more the systematic elimination of alternatives.

Citizens from Central Asia now represent the largest group of foreign nationals fighting in the Russian Armed Forces. According to data published in April 2026 by Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, more than 12,000 soldiers from Central Asia have participated in Russia's war against Ukraine - more than half of all foreign soldiers serving Russia. The breakdown: 4,800 Uzbeks, more than 3,400 Tajiks, and 2,400 Kazakhs confirmed among the recruits.

Inside the camp

In the yard of a military prison in Lviv region, western Ukraine, prisoners silently file toward the dining hall. Some have been detained for four years. Many have Asian features. Guards describe them as calm.

Three Central Asian POWs agreed to speak with Novastan.

Khushbakht Peruzaliev, 47 - Tajikistan

Peruzaliev signed a contract with the Russian Army in spring 2024. "I was told I would not have to go to the front or anything of that kind. They said I would only be working in a warehouse, so I accepted." Within weeks, he was deployed to a frontal assault in Donetsk Oblast, where he was wounded and captured. "Half of the group was killed immediately - all 200," he said, using the Russian military code for death.

His path to the contract followed the Crocus City Hall attack of March 2024, after which raids against Tajik migrants intensified sharply across Russia. Peruzaliev had been working on a construction site in Moscow. He abandoned plans to renew his expired passport for fear of arrest on the way to the embassy. When special police forces checked his worksite, he was offered a deal: citizenship in exchange for joining the army.

Ilyas, 40 - Kyrgyzstan

Ilyas had lived in Moscow since 2007, working as a drinks retailer. He signed in April 2025. "During the hiring process, they didn't directly promise me citizenship, but I knew I would have the possibility to obtain it after." Deployed after minimal training, he was moving toward a village when drones began targeting his unit. He barely escaped before being taken prisoner. Despite years in Russia and a Russian wife, he had previously failed to obtain citizenship through normal channels: "I submitted all documents a long time ago, but it was refused."

Jasur Islamov, 38 - Uzbekistan

Islamov served for eighteen months, of which only two were paid. In March 2025, after a year and a half, he was promised citizenship if he continued serving. Weeks later, a drone strike wounded him and he was captured. "I did not even receive any money from the contract." When asked about his decision, he pushed back: "You are talking as if I specifically signed to kill people… I only needed a place to live, a passport, to work and feed my family." After a pause: "I'm not saying we made the right decision. Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone."

The structural trap

Caress Schenck, a political science professor at Nazarbayev University in Astana, provides the analytical frame: administrative pressure on Central Asian migrants in Russia "reduces their ability to act and make their own decisions, rather than offering them a real choice." Since November 2025, some foreigners in Russia are required to present a military commitment contract to obtain Russian citizenship or a residency permit - a policy that disproportionately affects Central Asian migrants, who make up more than 40% of migrants living in Russia.

The January 2024 Putin decree made the dynamic explicit: certain foreigners could obtain Russian citizenship by serving in the armed forces during the "special military operation." For people whose passport applications had been refused for years, who feared deportation, and whose legal status had become precarious after the Crocus City Hall crackdown, this was not an offer made in a vacuum.

"Migration control policies, raids and pressure to join the army are still highly influenced by the news cycle," Schenck notes. "Sometimes, anyone with Asian features can be perceived as suspicious."
The ideology factor

Unlike many African recruits who were deceived about the nature of their work, the Central Asian POWs Novastan spoke with say they signed consciously - motivated by the desire for Russian citizenship and the pull of Soviet-era cultural affinity. "As for me, I wanted to live in Russia. I considered that I had the right to obtain citizenship, so to earn it, I had to serve the homeland," Islamov said.

None of the three attempted to surrender deliberately - a contrast with some African POWs. This, according to Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters, may reflect the fact that many Central Asian recruits are Russian-speaking, born in the 1970s and 1980s under the Soviet Union.

All three expressed a desire to return to Russia and hoped to be included in a prisoner exchange. Of the 7,000 Russian soldiers already exchanged, those from Central Asia remain a small minority.

 Ukraine has said it has no objection to exchanges involving Central Asian nationals - but Russia has shown no interest in requesting them.

"Could you imagine that I risked my life to obtain citizenship, and they would send me back to my country, when I have nothing left there? It would be a huge betrayal," Islamov said.

Russia has already betrayed him once. He signed. He fought. He was wounded. He was not paid. He was not exchanged. And the citizenship he was promised has not arrived.

StopRussianRecruiters.org reminds: if you or your relative were scammed into military service in Russia there is a safe way out provided by the Ukrainian government. Do not wait until it is too late - act now. 

Source: Novastan.org