A Bolivian Foreign Ministry official confirmed on Tuesday that young Bolivian men are being deceived and falsely led to fight for Russia in its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
According to the Bolivian Foreign Ministry, at least 16 Bolivian men are presently confirmed to be on the war’s front lines, but the exact number remains undetermined as of Wednesday.
This week, several Bolivian families from the rural Rincón de Palometas community in northern Bolivia reportedly said young members of their families have been missing for at least four months after they all departed to Russia. The families claimed their relatives were misled by false job offers that led to the men ending up fighting for Russia against Ukraine.
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Speaking with Unitel on Tuesday, Bolivian Deputy Foreign Minister for Consular and Institutional Management Héctor Huanca confirmed the reports of Bolivian men fighting on the frontlines for Russia and disclosed that a confidential investigation had been taking place at the request of the men’s families.
“At the request of the family members themselves, we have been asked to handle the case confidentially, safeguarding the security of any Bolivians who may be in combat and protecting the families themselves against potential hostile reactions,” Huanca told Unitel.
Huanca estimated that at least 16 Bolivian men are in war zones. However, he emphasized that this is neither a precise nor official statistic. He explained that, so far, Bolivia has provided consular assistance to one Bolivian man who decided to stop participating in the conflict, ensuring his repatriation back home.
The Deputy Foreign Minister disclosed that there are yet-to-be confirmed reports of at least two Bolivian men who have died in the conflict, noting that the Bolivian government is awaiting a diplomatic response on the matter through its embassy in Moscow.
In this photo taken from video provided by Russian Presidential Press Service on Thursday, November 20, 2025, Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks as he visits one of the command posts of the West group of Russian Army in an undisclosed location. (NYOTK Russian Presidential Press Service via AP)
According to Huanca, all of the cases have seen the existence of presumed intermediaries who recruited the men “through job and economic offers that did not came from official channels.”
Unitel spoke with a woman who identified herself as the wife of one of the missing recruited men on Wednesday morning. The woman, who wore a mask to conceal her appearance out of safety concerns, explained to Unitel that the recruiters arrived to the town and offered purported construction, masonry, plumbing, and security guard jobs, offering “a good sum of money” of $16,000 for their services.
Instead, the woman stressed, the deceived men were made to sign a contract in Russian and sent to fight against Ukraine.
“It was only when they got there that they were told it was for the war,” the woman said, and added that the men were allegedly first told that they “would be there for six months, then that it would be for a year, and later, until the war ended.”
According to the woman, her husband and other relatives left Bolivia on March 8. She detailed that has not heard from her husband since May 19. On that day, she claimed, the man allegedly said he was aboard a vehicle with “Colombian, Peruvians, and Russians” toward an unknown destination.
“That was the last call I received, and that was when my husband told me that they would take away their phone to avoid being located by the Ukrainians,” the woman told Unitel.
WATCH:
The Russian embassy in La Paz released a statement on Tuesday denying any involvement in the recruitment of Bolivian men to fight against Ukraine and rejecting any corresponding accusations. The embassy also affirmed that it has no links to any of the “supposed” recruitment activities, asserting that it has no information on “the existence of said structures.”
Instead, the embassy claimed that since March 2024, the Russian Defense Ministry has knowledge of “numerous Bolivian citizens” who have allegedly joined Ukraine’s ranks in the ongoing conflict.
“In this context, one might ask why, throughout all these years, the participation of Bolivian citizens in the hostilities unleashed by the Zelensky regime has not raised questions or attracted comparable attention,” the statement read in part.
The situation in Bolivia this week, far from being an isolated case, is now a growing phenomena across other Latin American nations, most notably in Cuba.
For years, Cuban activists have repeatedly accused the communist Castro regime — a longtime ally of Russia — of facilitating the shipping of thousands of young Cuban men to fight for Russia in its ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Additionally, and much like in Bolivia, numerous reports over the past years have denounced cases of several Cuban men being deceived with false “job offer” opportunities in Russia, only for the men to end up in the frontlines against Ukraine.
A similar situation was reported in Peru earlier this year by over 120 Peruvian families, who also said their relatives have fallen victim to false “job offers” in Russia that have seen them end up fighting for Russia.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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