OPEN LETTER: 28,000 "ghosts" that Moscow has abandoned in Ukrainian prisons

The figures your governments have not disclosed

The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on June 12, 2026: At least 3,080 foreigners from 135 countries and territories are fighting alongside Russia.

In 2022: 34. In 2025: 14,000. Plan for 2026: 18,500 more foreign soldiers. A foreign army built by the Kremlin.

What this increase reveals

This increase is no accident. It is an industrial strategy—systematic, organized, and funded. The West looks the other way.

Only Ukraine is compiling the data and keeping the moral tally that no one else wants to take on.

From 34 in 2022 to 14,000 in 2025: this increase is no accident. It is an industrial recruitment strategy based on global poverty.

A database that should set off alarm bells in capitals

The government project “I Want to Live” has identified more than 28,000 foreigners whose data has been verified (Ukrinform, May 28, 2026).

At least 5,149 of them were lost in combat—sent to the front lines as expendable resources.

A collective silence that is a disgrace

Not Moscow. Not their embassies. These 5,149 dead are a statistic without a national burial.

This silence is a shared shame—that of the states that knew and did nothing.

5,149 verified deaths. Who mourns them? Not Moscow. Not their embassies. This collective silence is a disgrace that belongs to all those who knew and said nothing.

No requests for other nationalities

Bohdan Okhrimenko (Coordination Secretariat): “The Russians aren’t interested in them in the negotiations. No requests, except for the North Koreans.”

Nor the Kenyans. Nor the Nepalese. Nor the Sri Lankans. Once captured, they are no longer of interest to Moscow—they’ve been abandoned.

Abandoned military assets

Moscow is demanding its North Koreans back—as diplomatic leverage. The other foreign soldiers: abandoned.

This cynicism says it all about the value Russia places on its recruits: military expendables without diplomatic protection.

Moscow is demanding its North Koreans back because Pyongyang is part of the axis. The others? Abandoned. This cynicism says it all about the value Moscow places on its foreign soldiers: zero.

Beijing Absent from Negotiations

Two Chinese soldiers captured in the spring of 2025 have been held for over a year at an SBU facility (UA.news, as reported by Le Monde).

The Russian side: no interest. Beijing: total silence. China knows what is happening in Ukraine—and chooses to say nothing.

Beijing’s silent complicity is well documented

China speaks of peace at the UN. It doesn’t even demand the release of its captured soldiers. The hypocrisy: total, documented.

Proof of Beijing’s complicity: two Chinese citizens captured in Ukraine while fighting for Russia, whom Beijing has abandoned without a word.

Two Chinese soldiers have been in a Ukrainian prison for over a year. Beijing says nothing. If the West were still looking for proof of China’s silent complicity, here it is.

The Principle of Non-Refoulement Against the Will of Captives

Two North Korean soldiers captured in November 2025 are requesting to be transferred to South Korea—a legal dilemma between the Geneva Convention and the principle of non-refoulement.

Sending a North Korean back to Pyongyang is tantamount to a death sentence. Ukraine is managing this crisis on its own—a crisis that neither Seoul, Washington, nor the UN had anticipated.

A test of our true values

These soldiers survived the Ukrainian front and refuse to return to Pyongyang. The world’s response will determine whether human rights apply even to defeated enemies.

A test of the West’s moral consistency—one that no one wants to take.

These two North Korean soldiers survived the Ukrainian front. They are asking not to be sent back to Pyongyang. The world’s response to this request will say a great deal about our true values.

European Citizens in the Enemy’s Ranks

EU nationals captured by Ukraine: Greece, Slovakia, Italy, Estonia, Bulgaria—citizens of allied states who fought for the enemy.

Demanding their return would mean acknowledging that European citizens fought for Putin. Diplomatic silence is the easy way out that has been chosen.

A Question with No Legal Answer

How should we treat a citizen who has chosen to side with the enemy? There is no legal answer. Nor is there a political one.

A question the EU has not yet been willing to ask. Its silence is a political decision.

Italians, Greeks, and Slovaks are in Ukrainian prisons for having fought for Putin. Their governments know this. The silence is a political response, not a lack of information.

From Terrorism to the Status of Regular Combatant

Before 2022: terrorism or mercenary activity. Since the invasion, Ukraine has recognized them as regular combatants—just like Russian soldiers.

This legal shift creates a stark asymmetry: Russia treats foreigners defending Ukraine as war criminals. Only one side respects the Geneva Conventions.

What Ukraine honors that Moscow would never do

Ukraine applies the Geneva Conventions to men who were fighting to destroy it. A decision that comes at a cost—and one that brings honor.

This choice exposes Russian barbarism: Moscow would not do the same. This moral asymmetry is an argument the West must amplify.

Ukraine applies the Geneva Conventions to men who were fighting to destroy it. It is a decision that comes at a cost—and one that brings honor. Moscow does not do the same.

Security vs. Transparency: A Painful Trade-off

Alina Pavluk (Ukrainian Legal Advisory Group): “Our agencies say as little as possible, for fear of complicating prisoner exchanges.”

That’s no excuse. The families of these 28,000 foreigners have no reliable information about the fate of their loved ones.

Mothers waiting in Nairobi, Kathmandu, Colombo

I understand the security rationale. What I find harder to understand is that it trumps the families’ right to know—the mothers in Nairobi, Kathmandu, and Colombo.

This tension between strategic necessity and human suffering has no easy resolution.

I understand the security rationale. What I find harder to understand is that it completely tramples on the families’ right to know. These men have mothers somewhere—in Nairobi, Kathmandu, and Colombo.

Return where? Without a passport, without a country to claim them

Some prisoners cannot return due to a lack of documents. Others face indifference from their governments. Several countries criminalize mercenary activity—exposing returnees to prosecution.

Okhrimenko: “If a prisoner does not wish to return and there is no mechanism in place, we will keep him as long as necessary.” That is an honest answer.

Moscow bears full responsibility

A man who can neither return home nor stay. This represents an entire category of lives shattered by Russia’s recruitment strategy.

Russia lured them in, used them, and abandoned them. Moscow bears full responsibility—documented and indisputable.

A man who can neither return nor stay. A state that does not want him. This represents an entire category of lives shattered by a war they did not choose—or chose only to a very limited extent.

Ukraine Opens Its Camps, While the World Looks the Other Way

On June 12, 2026, Ukraine opened the Zakhid-1 camp to foreign diplomats. It is revealing what Moscow would prefer to keep hidden.

Ukraine is keeping the moral tally of a war whose costs extend far beyond Russian soldiers alone. This effort deserves recognition.

What it cannot do alone

Force 48 governments to take a stand. Establish an international legal framework. Compel Russia to take responsibility for its abandoned recruits.

That is the job of the international community—which prefers silence to difficult decisions.

Ukraine is opening the doors to its camps. It is inviting diplomats. It is publishing the figures. It is Ukraine that is doing the work others refuse to do. That, too, deserves to be said.

The List of Responsibilities That Can No Longer Be Avoided

To the governments of the 48 nations: your citizens fought for a foreign power. They are captives. Your silence is not a stance—it is a failure.

To Russia: You recruited them, used them, and profited from them. Abandoning them is a public admission of your contempt.

The West’s Responsibility in This Matter

The West must support Ukraine in establishing a legal framework for captured foreign fighters. This legal vacuum will create the same problems in every future conflict.

This issue lies at the heart of international humanitarian law in an era of mass foreign recruitment.

I have no specific solution to offer. No one does. What I do have is the certainty that silence destroys—slowly, administratively, and quietly. And that it must stop.

I have no specific solution to offer. No one does. What I do have is the certainty that silence destroys—and that it must stop.

A legal loophole that no one is filling

International humanitarian law did not anticipate the massive recruitment of foreign fighters orchestrated by a belligerent state.

This gap gives rise to unprecedented categories: prisoners without a clear legal status, with no state claiming them for repatriation, and no exchange mechanism.

What Ukraine Is Building in the Absence of a Global Framework

Ukraine is improvising and documenting. It is establishing the legal precedent that the international community has not yet codified.

This effort deserves the West’s support. The war is redefining the rules of armed conflict. The world must follow suit.

A precedent that will shape future conflicts

This war has given rise to a new category: foreign fighters who were recruited, abandoned upon capture, and held without any exchange mechanism or a state claiming them back.

How Ukraine handles these 28,000 registered individuals, representing 48 nationalities, will set a legal precedent for every future conflict involving large-scale recruitment of foreign fighters.

The Final Demand

I am not demanding their immediate release. I am demanding that we stop treating them as legal ghosts. That the Geneva Conventions be applied. That their governments take responsibility. That Moscow respond.

These men have names and families. They are in camps in western Ukraine—visible, documented, alive. The world’s indifference remains a political decision.

Signed, Maxime Marquette, columnist