On 11 July 2025, Ahmed Saleem* boarded a flight from Jordan to Russia. He was chasing what looked like a dream job.
A man in his fifties, Saleem had received an offer on Telegram that promised non-combat work with the Russian Ministry of Defence.
The recruiter – a Russian woman named Polina Alexandrovna – offered him a monthly salary of 200,000 roubles (around $2,000), Russian citizenship, and work under a private company.
But when he landed in the Russian city of Bryansk, the reality hit.
He wasn’t hired for catering or logistics. Instead, Saleem was forced into the “International elite battalion”, a foreign mercenary unit fighting on the frontlines of Russia’s war against Ukraine.
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Back in Amman, Saleem had worked at a restaurant until a prolapsed disc left him unable to continue. With his finances in free fall, he turned to Telegram – tipped off by a friend who’d heard of “easy” jobs in Russia.
The battalion he joined includes fighters from across the Arab world: Jordan, Iraq, Yemen, Syria and others.
According to information gathered by Middle East Eye, many are recruited through Telegram groups advertising non-combat roles in the Russian army, with promises of land, high pay and fast-track citizenship.
But once in Russia, the bait-and-switch begins.
‘Deception and entrapment’
Saleem’s wife, Muna*, said he was told he had no choice but to sign military contracts written in Russian once he arrived there, without a translator, internet or legal advice.
“He was driven for hours, then forced to sign 21 documents. He had no idea what they said,” she told MEE. “He was threatened with losing his financial rights if he refused.”
The papers, it turned out, signed him up as a frontline fighter. Not support staff. Not logistics. Combat.
‘He can’t run. He can’t carry a weapon. He can’t defend himself’
– Muna, Saleem’s wife
Since then, Saleem has been living under constant threat. Muna said he was deployed to a dangerously exposed area where he faced death daily.
When he tried to pull out, he was detained in solitary confinement for 12 hours, then sent back to the frontlines.
Even worse, the same woman who recruited him began demanding large sums of money, sometimes hundreds of thousands of roubles, in exchange for help getting out.
Muna said she reached out to Jordanian authorities, lawyers and human rights activists, but to no avail. Now, she’s appealing directly to the Jordanian royal family.
“This is deception and entrapment,” she said. “We appeal to King Abdullah II and the Crown Prince. My husband is dying every day.”
She says Saleem is living in brutal conditions. He doesn’t receive medication, the food is terrible, and the treatment is inhumane.
“He can’t run. He can’t carry a weapon. He can’t defend himself,” she said.
The Jordanian Foreign Ministry has not publicly commented on the issue.
However, sources told MEE that the case is under review, given the security implications and growing concerns over Jordanians participating in foreign wars.
According to retired Jordanian Major General Mamoun Abu Nowar, Russia’s use of foreign recruits is for tactical purposes.
“Foreigners are sent to the frontlines to drain Ukrainian ammunition and manpower,” he told MEE.
This clears the way for professional Russian soldiers to take over during the main combat phase.
Telegram recruiter
Saleem isn’t alone.
According to his wife, he now fights alongside other Jordanians and Arabs, all recruited through the same source: a Russian woman named Polina Aleksandrovna.
Aleksandrovna runs a Telegram channel that acts as a gateway to the battlefield.
‘Foreigners are sent to the frontlines to drain Ukrainian ammunition and manpower’
– Mamoun Abu Nowar, retired general
A civilian contractor with Russia’s Ministry of Defence, Aleksandrovna’s job is clear: recruit foreigners into the Russian army. Such jobs were legitimised after President Vladimir Putin signed a new law on in July, allowing non-Russian citizens to serve under contract.
The law offers wide-ranging incentives, including state pensions for those who serve, full social benefits equivalent to those of Russian soldiers, land allotments and fast-track Russian citizenship.
Aleksandrovna declined to answer MEE’s questions about deploying Arab and African mercenaries on the frontlines.
She called the enquiries “unprofessional”, adding: “Why don’t you talk about the mercenaries in the Ukrainian army?”
But on her Telegram channel, the details are clear.
She regularly posts recruitment ads for the so-called “Elite Battalion”. The message: “All countries are welcome. Men aged 18 to 55. Must be healthy and free from chronic illness.”
Applicants are told they’ll receive Russian citizenship after signing a one-year military contract. They’re also promised two weeks of paid leave after six months of service.
The Telegram posts go further, explain a smooth process: Russian authorities provide visas, then transport to contract-signing sites is arranged, before recruits are met at the airport and escorted to their accommodation.
Videos on the channel show Arab men training with weapons, holding Russian passports, and posing with military IDs. Other posts list names, contract scans, and countries of origin, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, and several African nations.
‘Human trafficking’
Jordan, like many Arab countries, is grappling with a deepening unemployment crisis. In the second quarter of 2025, male unemployment stood at 18.1 percent, while 32.8 percent of women were out of work. More than 60 percent of the unemployed hold secondary or university degrees, a sign of limited opportunities for even the educated.
Desperation is driving many to take extreme risks. In recent years, young Jordanians have risked their lives on irregular migration routes through South America to reach the US, clinging to the hope of a better life.
For Ahmed Saleem, and many others like him, the pursuit of work in Russia has exposed how the financial struggles of Arab youth are being exploited.
Dr Ayman Halsa, professor of international law and human rights and director of the Information and Research Centre – King Hussein Foundation (IRCKHF), says what’s happening is clear.
“Recruiting Jordanian citizens through misleading Telegram ads and sending them to fight in Russia’s war is not just mercenary activity,” he told MEE.
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“It’s human trafficking under both international standards and Jordanian law.”
Halsa points to the 1989 International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries, which came into force in 2001. It obligates member states to criminalise such practices.
Neither Jordan nor Russia is a signatory.
But Jordan has ratified another major instrument: the UN Palermo Protocol (2000), adopted in 2009. It defines human trafficking as the recruitment, transport, or harbouring of individuals through deception or exploitation of vulnerability – for forced labour, servitude, or other forms of exploitation.
“Jordan’s own 2009 Anti-Human Trafficking Law criminalises the use of deception in recruiting individuals for exploitative purposes,” Halsa said.
“These cases clearly meet the criteria for forced labour and fraud.”
He emphasised that these young men, often desperate and jobless, are not criminals.
“They are victims, not perpetrators. They deserve protection, support and rehabilitation.”
Halsa also highlighted that using fake job contracts to lure men into military roles is a violation of international humanitarian law, specifically Article 47 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions.
“This elevates the issue to the level of an international crime tied to human trafficking.”
Middle East Eye contacted the Russian Foreign Ministry for comment but received no response.
*Names changed to protect identities
