A young Kurdish man from Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan Region has allegedly been tricked into fighting on the front lines of Russia’s war in Ukraine after being promised a Russian wife, a home and a passport, according to his family.
The case, reported this week by Erbil-based outlet Rudaw, has sparked alarm that recruiters may be targeting vulnerable Kurdish and Iraqi youth with false promises of a new life in Russia, only to send them to the battlefield instead.
Missing for months, then a video from Russia
The missing man, identified as Metin Wehab from the Bradost area near Erbil, disappeared around four months ago.
According to his brother Siyamend Wehab, Metin had moved to Erbil earlier this year, working at a car wash before briefly returning home to sort out ID paperwork. In July, he told his family he had found work in the town of Altun Kupri (Pirde) and left home – then suddenly stopped responding to calls and messages.
For more than a month the family heard nothing. Then, on 15 August, a short video message arrived on a relative’s phone.
“In the video, he said he was in Russia and fighting on the border against Ukraine,” Siyamend told Rudaw, describing the moment the family realised Metin was no longer just missing, but in the middle of a war zone.
“House, passport and a Russian wife”
Relatives say Metin did not travel alone. According to Siyamend, recruiters in Iraq promised young men from the region an attractive package in Russia:
- A house
- A well-paid job
- A Russian passport
- And even a Russian wife
“They promise them a house, a passport and a Russian wife, and say the salary is very good,” the brother told Rudaw, adding that no one mentioned the war or the front line when Metin agreed to go.
The family’s account suggests the men may only have discovered their true situation once their documents were taken or once they were moved to military facilities inside Russia.
“Many Kurds and Iraqi Arabs here”
While searching for answers, Metin’s relatives managed to contact another young Kurdish man said to be fighting for Russia in a different city. That fighter told them there were “many Kurds and Iraqi Arabs” with him on the Russian side of the front, according to Rudaw’s report.
Turkish outlets that picked up the story, including Internet Haber, have framed the pattern as an “evlilik tuzağı” – a marriage trap – allegedly used to funnel Kurdish youth into one of the world’s deadliest conflicts.
Independent verification of the numbers involved remains difficult. No official figures have been released by either the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) or Russian authorities on how many Kurdish or Iraqi nationals may be fighting for Russia.
Part of a wider pattern of foreign recruitment?
The Wehab family’s claims come amid a growing body of reports that Russia has been recruiting or pressuring foreign nationals and migrant workers to bolster its forces in Ukraine.
- Previous Rudaw reporting from Russia’s Krasnodar region documented dozens of Kurds drafted into the Russian army after President Vladimir Putin’s mobilisation order in 2022.
- International media and rights groups have also detailed cases involving citizens from countries such as Sri Lanka, Nepal, India and Yemen, who say they were lured to Russia with promises of good jobs or residency, only to find themselves in military training camps and then in Ukraine.
In that wider context, the Metin Wehab case appears less like an isolated tragedy and more like a local example of a broader recruitment model that targets young people facing economic hardship and limited prospects at home.
Family calls on Kurdish authorities to intervene
Metin’s relatives say they still do not know whether he is alive, wounded or dead. They have appealed to KRG officials in Erbil to open an investigation into how he left the country, who organised the trip and what role – if any – local intermediaries played.
“We just want to know his fate,” the family has said, urging the authorities to work through diplomatic channels with Moscow to clarify the situation and to warn other young people about similar offers.
So far, there has been no public comment from the Russian government regarding the specific allegations in the Rudaw report, and no official statement from KRG security or foreign affairs bodies about Metin’s case.
Rising risks for desperate youth
The story has resonated strongly in Kurdistan, where youth unemployment, political deadlock and recurring economic crises push thousands every year to consider risky migration routes toward Europe or jobs abroad.
Local activists warn that as long as those pressures continue, young men like Metin will remain vulnerable to recruiters offering quick fixes: a new passport, a foreign spouse, a fresh start – and a ticket, they may only discover too late, to the front line of a distant war.
