Russia recruits mercenaries on Facebook, including in Moldova
A WatchDog study shows Russia-linked ads on Facebook targeted Moldova, promising money and Russian citizenship to recruits.
What it means for you
If you see job or money offers abroad on social media, check who paid for them and where they lead. The ads studied promise money, citizenship or a job, but the contract is signed only in Russia. The study calls for Meta to rethink its ad rules.
What happened
The WatchDog.MD community analysed recruitment ads on Facebook and Instagram from 29 June to 29 September 2026. In September 2026, three Facebook pages unrelated to the military ran a Romanian-language ad in Moldova. The ad promised 482,000 lei and Russian citizenship, but led to an offer to join the Russian army.
In short
- Four ads for Moldova, published by three Facebook pages, were identified.
- Another 86 ads aimed at other countries were found in the same monitoring.
- The ads run without a disclaimer, which makes it hard to find out who paid for them and how much.
- Data collected by the recruitment sites ends up on a server in Düsseldorf, Germany.
- According to Ukraine's military intelligence (DGI), almost 29,000 foreigners have signed contracts with the Russian army since 2022.
Original sources
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