Russia is recruiting migrant workers from Central Asia to fight in its war on Ukraine, said British intelligence reports.

In its daily intelligence update on the war in Ukraine, the British Ministry of Defence reported that Russian military recruiters visited mosques and immigration offices to target central Asian migrant workers in Russia.

“The immigration offices, staff who speak Tajik and Uzbek routinely attempt to recruit migrants,” the ministry said on Twitter.

“They even offer them “a fast-track Russian citizenship path of six months to one year, instead of the usual five years.”

The recruiters lured the workers using financial incentives: bonuses worth $2,390 and monthly salaries of up to $4,160.

The recruits would likely be sent to the front lines to fight, said British intelligence experts, as part of Russia’s attempt to meet the target of 400,000 volunteers fighting in Ukraine.

London suggested that Russia’s government was “almost certainly seeking to delay any new overt mandatory mobilisation for as long as possible” given that the last wave of conscription was widely unpopular.

(dpa/NAN)