On Tuesday, June 13, Reuters reported five Russian diplomats were expelled from Moldova in May because they were allegedly recruiting fighters to join the Russian-led separatist forces in eastern Ukraine. Russian officials denied the allegations, but there are some details in the report that can be independently corroborated. What can digital forensics tell us about foreign fighters in the Donbas who hail from Moldova, and can the Reuters report be verified in part or in whole?

Fertile ground for recruitment

Russia’s alleged recruitment of fighters in Moldova is no accident, as the country is one of the best sources for potential recruits. The most obvious reason for this is the breakaway region of Transnistria, bordering the southwestern border of Ukraine and where Russia bases around a thousand soldiers. A number of Ukrainian and Russian foreign fighters participated in the Transnistria War in the early 90s, with allegations that Russia “encouraged or even directly facilitated the inflow of foreign fighters.” This pipeline apparently flows in the other direction as well, with the recent reports of Russia recruiting fighters from Moldova (including Transnistria) to travel eastwards to join the ranks of Russian-led separatist forces in the Donbas.

Moldovan foreign fighters

We know that a large percentage — perhaps a majority — of fighters in the Russian-led separatist forces are Russian, many of which are volunteers. In August 2015, separatist official Aleksandr Borodai estimated that between 30,000 and 50,000 Russian volunteers were either active fighters in or previously participated in the Ukrainian conflict, citing numbers from the Union of Donbass Volunteers. For reference, Ukraine’s Defense Minister estimated that the Russian-led separatist forces had around 40,000 active soldiers in 2015. In February 2016, the Ukrainian Security Services (SBU) estimated that at least 40 Moldovans (the majority of which are from Transnistria) were fighting in the Donbas — a relatively scant number, compared with the number of Russian fighters. Regardless, these foreign fighters deserve treatment due to their background and the recent diplomatic incident.

A new article from Stanislav Secrieru is perhaps the most complete treatment of Moldovan foreign fighters in the Donbas, providing comprehensive data from open sources on the number of Moldovans fighting in the ranks of Russian-led separatist forces. Secrieru details how Russia has not only targeted Moldovans in Transnistria, but also throughout the rest of Moldova and Russia:

“R ussian recruiters targeted Moldova’s citizens living and working in Russia (some would make their way to Donbas via the permeable Russian-Ukrainian border in East) and those residing on Moldova’s territory controlled by the central authorities in Chisinau. A mix of economic incentives often wrapped in an ideological package was used to attract those who recently returned from Russia and were looking for sources of revenue. Social networks have also served as an important communication bridge convincing targets to join the ranks of foreign fighters.”

These recruiting methods, combined with Moldovans who decided to fight in the Donbas on their own, have led to dozens of fighters in the forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics. Secrieru identified six Russian-separatist military units where Moldovan foot soldiers have been active: the Rusich and Bryanka SSSR battalions in the Luhansk region, and the Volchia Sotnia, Sparta, Vostok, and Somali battalions in the Donetsk region.

We can find many of these fighters on two Russian-language social networks popular in both Moldova and Ukraine: Vkontakte (VK) and Odnoklassniki (OK). The controversial Ukrainian site Myrotvorets (“Peacemaker”) and the Moldovan news site Deschide.md have cataloged much of this evidence over the past three years; additionally, much can still be found on active social network profiles.

A particularly representative example of a Moldovan volunteer can be found in Yury Kudinov, a veteran of the Moldovan army who fought in the Donbas in 2015. He was arrested at the Chisinau airport on November 13, 2015, after returning from Ukraine.