The Government of Peru communicated this Sunday that, out of a total of 459 Peruvian citizens who would have joined the Russian forces in the war in Ukraine, at least eleven have lost their lives, 114 are listed as missing, and three have been "captured" by the Ukrainian Army.
"It has been reported that 459 Peruvians have enlisted, with unfortunately eleven deceased, 114 missing, and three captured by the Ukrainian Army," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Andean country has informed in an official statement.
The same document from the Ministry detailed the repatriation of two young Peruvians "in a vulnerable situation" who managed to escape from the "forced recruitment of which they were victims to provide services in the war against Ukraine." In addition to these, two other citizens who had already been attended to at the end of July by the consular section of the Embassy of Peru in Russia are included.
With these last four returns, the total number of evacuated Peruvians rises to 31: of them, 28 have returned to the country and three have chosen to remain in different parts of Europe by their own decision.
In this context, Peruvian authorities have reiterated their call to the population to "not be deceived by false job offers," warning that there is a high risk of falling into the hands of criminal networks dedicated to human trafficking.
"Serving in the military for any foreign state requires prior authorization from the Peruvian Government, according to the Constitution," the Andean Executive has emphasized, which has also urged to report recruiters to the Public Ministry and the National Police of Peru.
In parallel, last Thursday the European Union (EU) estimated that "more than 28,000" foreign citizens from "135 countries" would have been recruited by Moscow to fight in the war in Ukraine "as assault troops," many of them "coerced or deceived."
During the past year, numerous episodes of recruitment of foreigners to fight in Ukraine on the Russian side have been made public —including coercion, deception, and scams— affecting both nationals of African countries such as Kenya, Uganda, or Zimbabwe, as well as citizens of Latin American states such as Colombia or Bolivia.