Peru is investigating people smuggling citizens to fight in Russia in Ukraine | News of the Russian-Ukrainian war

The prosecutor in Peru says that many of their citizens are victims of fraud, lured by promises of work but ended up in Ukraine.

Peru has launched an investigation into a human trafficking ring that lured Russian citizens with false promises of Russian jobs so they could fight in Russia’s war with Ukraine, the prosecutor’s office said.

People were “fraudulently recruited to work as security agents and other positions” in Russia, “with the promise of compensation,” the prosecutor’s office said Friday.

The investigation will focus on alleged “trafficking in human beings” and “large-scale human trafficking”, the office said.

Percy Salinas, a lawyer representing the families of Ukrainian front-line soldiers, told TV N that 13 Peruvians have died in the war in Ukraine so far, according to AFP.

Salinas said people were reportedly being paid a monthly salary of between $2,000 and $3,000, and that about 600 Peruvians had been lured since last October to fight in Russia.

In a statement released on Thursday, Moscow’s embassy in Lima acknowledged that the Peruvians had signed agreements to join the Russian military.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Peru has said that it has asked the Russian embassy to clarify the situation and to know the whereabouts of the citizens who are working in the Russian military. The ministry noted that Peruvian citizens must request permission from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs before joining the foreign military.

Families of some of the victims who said they were falsely recruited to fight in Ukraine protested outside the ministry in Lima on Thursday, demanding the return of their loved ones.

Peru is the latest country to file a complaint against Russia for allegedly recruiting foreigners to fight in Ukraine.

More than 1,780 citizens from 36 African countries are believed to be fighting alongside Russian forces, according to Ukrainian estimates from February.

Russia has already accepted it recruiting soldiers from North Koreathousands of people are said to have been killed or injured in the fighting, as part of an armistice agreement between Moscow and Pyongyang.