Russia recruits Moldovans for the war in Ukraine through paid ads on Facebook and Instagram. Promises of hundreds of thousands of lei and Russian citizenship. WatchDog: Meta helps the Kremlin erase evidence – cotidianul.md

Moldovan citizens are being targeted by organized recruitment campaigns for the Russian army, carried out through paid advertisements on Facebook and Instagram. To attract them to the front in Ukraine, recruiters promise salaries of tens of thousands of lei, substantial bonuses upon signing contracts, and obtaining Russian citizenship. An investigation by the WatchDog.MD Community shows that these ads are part of an international network operating through pages with seemingly innocuous names, intermediary sites and messaging apps. Experts warn that the mechanism also poses risks of abusive collection of personal data, while Meta’s delayed reaction allows the ads to circulate and makes it difficult to identify those who finance them.According to the study conducted by Andrei Rusu, between June 29 and September 29, monitoring of the Meta Ad Library advertising archive allowed the identification of four advertisements intended for users from the Republic of Moldova and another 86 ads directed at the public from other states.The network uses similar methods regardless of the country targeted: pages with neutral names, sometimes created on the very day the ads are launched, domains that hide the real purpose of the campaigns, and infrastructures used to promote casinos or fraudulent schemes.”This demonstrates that the operation of advertisements is subcontracted to companies or informal groups in the industry, which make money from commercial orders, including scams. The geography of the campaigns corresponds to the regions to which, according to the General Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine, Russian recruitment has been redirected,” the author of the investigation notes.Salaries of up to 47.489 lei and Russian citizenship for those willing to enlistThe Republic of Moldova was targeted by at least two waves of such campaigns in 2026. The first cases were reported in January by the publication Diez.md, which identified two Facebook pages promoting contractual military service in the Russian Federation. The advertisements also targeted recruitment for assault troops. Interested candidates were promised approximately 65.000 lei per month and a bonus of almost 500.000 lei upon signing the contract. Candidates had to travel to Moscow on their own and send recruiters, via Telegram or WhatsApp, including passport photos.A new wave of ads was identified in September. Three pages, named “Property abu2”, “Surprise Hot” and “Elena Vargas”, shared the same poster in Romanian, with the message “Contract-based service – service for real men”.The offer included an annual payment of 482.000 lei, monthly income between 37.349 and 47.489 lei, and the possibility of obtaining Russian citizenship. For comparison, the average gross salary in the Republic of Moldova, indicated in the study based on data from the National Bureau of Statistics, was 16.896 lei. Thus, the income promised through advertisements exceeded more than twice the average salary, and the amount of 482.000 lei represented the equivalent of average income for almost two and a half years.At the time of publication of the analysis, the three pages had disappeared, and the ads could no longer be found in the Meta archive.Candidates’ personal data may reach anonymous operatorsWatchDog.MD warns that advertising is only the first stage of the recruitment process. After accessing the ad, interested individuals are redirected to external websites, Facebook forms, or private conversations on Telegram and WhatsApp.photo source: Watchdog.mdThere, the conditions of departure and enlistment are discussed, while contracts are subsequently signed on the territory of the Russian Federation.“For Moldova, the risk also lies in the collection of data through forms, from passport to HIV status, which reach anonymous operators and can later be used for pressure or other forms of recruitment, identity theft, etc., including for diversions in the interests of the Russian Federation beyond the borders of the Republic of Moldova”, warns the author of the study.A documented example is the Uzbek page “Kasb organing,” which translates to “Learn a trade.” It advertised a supposed job in drone assembly and offered a bonus of approximately $50.000 upon signing the contract, without explicitly mentioning the military.The investigation shows that the information collected through such sites also ends up on a server located in Düsseldorf, Germany. The author believes that the use of digital infrastructure from a European Union member state for such operations raises serious security issues and requires investigation.photo source: Watchdog.mdUkrainian services data: 857 Moldovans recruited, 81 deadAccording to information attributed to the General Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, 857 Moldovan citizens were recruited for the Russian army, and 81 of them died.These figures have not been confirmed or denied by the Moldovan authorities, who do not publish their own statistics on citizens enlisted, captured, or killed while fighting on the side of Russia.The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has recommended that Moldovans in the Russian Federation not sign documents related to military service without legal advice. At the same time, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has announced that it is monitoring such announcements.Internationally, the recruitment campaigns identified by WatchDog.MD use at least eight languages, and the main arguments are financial gains and obtaining Russian citizenship.photo source: Watchdog.mdAccording to data from Ukrainian services, almost 29.000 foreign citizens have signed contracts with the Russian army since 2022. For 2026, Moscow reportedly planned to recruit at least 18.500 more people from outside the country.WatchDog accuses Meta of reacting too slowlyAnother problem reported by the study’s authors is the long time that ads remain active before being identified or removed.In the Republic of Moldova, ads discovered in January circulated for over three days, and a page targeting the Latin American audience published recruitment ads for more than two months.Between September 21 and 27 alone, 56 new ads were launched, which, according to experts, demonstrates the network’s ability to quickly resume its activity.“Delayed moderation not only lets ads reach people, but also erases the traces that investigators would need. Basically, Meta helps Russia erase evidence of its crimes. The geography of the campaigns is not accidental either: Latin America, Central Asia and Africa are exactly the regions that, according to the DGI, Russian recruitment structures have reoriented towards after 39 states obtained a suspension of the recruitment of their citizens.”, it is shown in the analysis.In this context, WatchDog.MD recommends that the authorities in Chisinau intensify information campaigns about the risks of enlisting in the Russian army, monitor the online infrastructure used for recruitment, and cooperate with Ukraine and European partners to identify the individuals involved.The organization also calls for the involvement of Meta, including by automatically detecting military recruitment messages in advertising images and by introducing additional transparency requirements regarding ad funders.The European Commission should also require digital platforms to extend transparency measures to the Republic of Moldova, in its capacity as a candidate state for accession to the European Union.The study also highlights a paradox: although Facebook and Instagram have been blocked in Russia since 2022, and Meta has been declared an extremist organization by Russian authorities, the American company’s platforms continue to be used to promote campaigns that serve the Kremlin’s military interests.source