Russia brands foreign mercenaries in its occupying army to strengthen control and depersonalization. The marking allows Moscow to leave the bodies of eliminated foreigners on the battlefield as "unknown", list them as "missing" and evade paying financial compensation to their families in Africa and Asia. This was reported by the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, as reported by UNN.
"The aggressor state Russia brands foreign mercenaries in its occupying army to strengthen control and depersonalization. Instead of standard metal military identification tags, a system of sequential "inventory numbers" is used for foreign mercenaries in Russia; these numbers are applied to equipment or skin," the statement reads.
According to the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, the brand is applied with durable dyes— henna or jagua—so such markings remain for weeks and cannot be washed off with soap and water. If the mark fades and becomes barely visible, it is renewed.
"There have been cases when Russian police stopped foreigners, including students and migrant workers, and checked for the presence of numbers—this is how the security forces of the aggressor state search for deserters. The system resembles the practices of Nazi concentration camps, where prisoners were assigned a number in order to erase their identity, name and legal status. In fact, Russia's occupying army is turning foreign mercenaries into commodities—numbered assault units," the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine added.
The intelligence service noted that this primitive marking allows Moscow to leave the bodies of eliminated foreigners on the battlefield as "unknown", list them as "missing" and evade paying financial compensation to their families in Africa and Asia, concealing the real scale of the losses.
"The Defence Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine emphasizes that the use of totalitarian methods to deprive people of their names and identities once again proves Russia's systematic disregard for the norms of international humanitarian law. The data obtained is being transmitted to foreign partners and law enforcement agencies for inclusion in the materials of future international tribunals concerning the military and political leadership of the aggressor state," the intelligence service concluded.
It will be recalled
Losses of Russian troops since the beginning of the full-scale invasion are approaching 1.5 million military personnel, Ukraine said on August 11, while Russians have increasingly begun recruiting foreigners into the army.