Fast tracked - The young Serbs signing up to fight in Putin's war

Anti-war whistleblowers' leaked list and first-hand accounts appear to show plan to enlist fighters from Serbia

- Pjotr Sauer

At the beginning of September, Branko boarded a direct flight from Belgrade to Moscow. After a few days in the Russian capital, Branko, with three other Serbian nationals, was driven to a military recruitment centre in Krasnogorsk, a city on the outskirts of Moscow, where the group signed a contract with the Russian military.

"It all went very fast; in one day I became a soldier for Russia... Now I am waiting to be sent to Ukraine," Branko said in a text exchange on Telegram, requesting anonymity so he could speak freely.

Branko, not his real name, was part of Moscow's latest drive to recruit Serbs to fight for the Russian army in Ukraine, as the Kremlin seeks to replenish its forces, depleted by 18 months of fighting.

Based on accounts provided by two Serbian fighters who travelled to Russia, as well as a leaked list of recruited Serbs, the Guardian found that Russian officials appear to have made plans to recruit hundreds of Serbian nationals to bolster the army.

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Russia has introduced a series of laws to lure foreign citizens to join its ranks. Vladimir Putin, at a security meeting shortly after his troops invaded Ukraine, said the Kremlin should help people from overseas who planned to fight on Russia's side.

Since then, the Russian leader has signed an order lowering the minimum length of contract military service for foreigners from five years to one and offered a fast-track recruitment drive to non-Russian combatants.