An unprecedented investigation into one of Russia’s most covert war operations: the recruitment of foreign nationals as frontline soldiers for its invasion of Ukraine. This revelatory #BBCEye documentary follows journalist Nawal Al-Maghafi as she peels back the layers of the recruitment networks targeting young men from impoverished and war-torn countries like Syria and Yemen. Lured with promises of prosperity and citizenship that lead them into a brutal conflict from which many will never return.

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‘Into the Void: Putin’s Foreign Fighters’ is driven by the personal stories of several foreign fighters. It opens with a secret call from one of them, ‘Habib’, a Syrian soldier on the frontline, who reveals the inner workings of the recruitment process and the grim reality faced by the foreign soldiers. The investigation then delves into the story of Omar, a Syrian construction worker, who, like many others, was tricked. Promised a non-combat role, Omar finds himself thrust into the brutal frontlines.

A central figure in this web of deceit is Polina, a former teacher turned recruiter, who uses social media to entice economically vulnerable men across the world. We obtain leaked documents and correspondence that reveal her links to the regional authorities in Russia who support these recruitment operations, highlighting a state-sponsored effort to bolster troop numbers with foreign fighters.

The film expands its scope to Yemen, another country becoming a fertile recruiting ground. Here, we meet Ali Al-Sabbahi, a Yemeni human rights lawyer, who is desperately trying to help the families of young men who have disappeared after traveling to Russia. The investigation follows the harrowing journey of two Yemeni men, Khalil and Hussein, who are eventually found in a Ukrainian prisoner-of-war facility. Their emotional interviews reveal the false promises that led them to war and the subsequent abandonment they face from both Russia and their home country.

00:00 Into the Void: Inside Russia’s foreign fighter recruitment
00:34 Life on the frontline in Ukraine
05:00 “Recruited Arabs are sent to die immediately”
06:29 Omar’s Story: From recruitment to the battlefield
09:03 Polina Alexandrovna: Russia’s recruitment operator
10:58 How recruitment deception targets foreign fighters
14:09 Recruitment since the start of the Ukraine war
15:24 Yemeni soldiers trapped in Russia’s war
19:00 Why Yemen is targeted for foreign fighter recruitment
21:40 Rare access inside Ukraine’s Prisoner of War facility
23:45 Tracing missing Yemeni soldiers
26:18 Khalil speaks to his mother from prison
29:05 Contract loophole used to trap recruits
30:36 Habib escapes Russia’s recruitment network
35:00 “To them, we are numbers, not human beings”
39:14 Confronting Polina Alexandrovna
44:35 Intimidation tactics used against journalists
45:50 Families plead for the return of their sons
48:34 One man’s fight to save Yemeni soldiers
49:26 Why foreign soldiers cannot be freed

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