Dilbar has languished in pretrial detention for months in the Russian city of Omsk, where she said she was beaten, shocked with a taser, and threatened by prison officers.
As she awaits trial on drug-smuggling charges, the 18-year-old Central Asian migrant has been given a stark choice: go to prison for up to 15 years or join Russia’s war effort in Ukraine and gain her freedom.
The case of Dilbar has put the spotlight on Russia’s recruitment of Central Asian women for its nearly four-year war in Ukraine. Russia hosts millions of migrant workers from the former Soviet republics of Central Asia.
Thousands of men from Central Asia are believed to have joined Russian forces in Ukraine. Some were lured by offers of lucrative jobs. Others, mainly convicts and detainees, have been forced to join the Russian military. A small number of Central Asian women have also enlisted, although their exact number is unknown.
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Dilbar, a citizen of Kyrgyzstan whose name has been changed to protect her identity, could soon be among them.
“Mom, forgive me,” Dilbar wrote in a recent letter to her mother. “If they give me a longer sentence, I’ll go to war. They’ll pay me there, and I’ll be free in a year.”
Dilbar was arrested in October, a year after she moved to Russia from the Kyrgyz city of Osh. She was walking with friends in Omsk when she was arrested on drug charges, which she rejects. Human rights activists say Central Asian migrants, including women, are frequently arrested on trumped-up drug charges.
Dilbar was told that she can serve as a cook in the Russian military in Ukraine and would receive 2 million rubles (around $26,000) for one year of work, a significant sum for many in Russia, according to her sister who asked not to be named for security reasons.
After completing her one-year contract, prison officials promised she would be freed, said Dilbar’s sister.
Dilbar’s sister traveled from Kyrgyzstan to Omsk to attend her court hearings. She said she has pleaded with her sister not to take up the offer to enlist in the Russian military.
“We often hear that people who go to Ukraine don’t come back alive,” Dilbar’s sister told RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service.
She said their father, also a migrant worker in Russia, enlisted in Moscow’s war in 2023 but is missing.
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Russia has recruited tens of thousands of prison inmates to fight in Ukraine in exchange for having their sentences commuted. The move has been aimed at bolstering troop levels amid heavy casualties and avoiding the need for a new mobilization.
Russia’s Defense Ministry and the private mercenary company Wagner have scoured prisons for recruits. Among those recruited are believed to be hundreds of women -- both Russian citizens and foreigners.
Some of the female convicts have been recruited as fighters while others work as cooks, cleaners, nurses, and paramedics.
The Russian authorities tried to recruit Gulbarchin, a woman from Kyrgyzstan who is serving a 12-year prison term in the city of Vladimir, outside Moscow.
Gulbarchin, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, said prison officials drew up a list of potential recruits for the war, according to a letter she wrote to her family in late 2023.
“Everyone with long sentences was included [in the list],” Gulbarchin wrote in the letter, adding that she refused to sign up.
Ezgulik, a human rights group based in Uzbekistan, said it has received letters from the relatives of dozens of imprisoned Uzbek women who accuse prison authorities of trying to recruit them for the war in Ukraine.
Among them is Umida, a woman whose sister is jailed in Russia. She said she has received letters from her sister revealing the lengths that prison authorities are going to in coercing women to enlist.
“They're deprived of food for 10 days to break the prisoners' will and convince them to go to the war,” Umida, who only gave her first name, told RFE/RL. “Some girls have committed suicide to avoid being sent to war.”
'Fight At The Front'
Russian authorities deny the recruitment of women for combat roles, describing their service as voluntary. Russian officials have said that more than 37,500 women serve in the Russian Armed Forces and about 270,000 additional women work in civilian roles in the military.
Russia’s Defense Ministry has not released data on how many women, especially foreign citizens, have been sent to the front.
Mirlan Toktobekov, a Kyrgyz immigration lawyer, told RFE/RL that most Central Asian women recruited by Russia work in support roles, although some do end up in combat roles.
“Women can be hired as cooks, medics, nurses, doctors, or other positions,” he said. “There are women working in teams repairing military equipment. And there are also those who fight at the front. Their participation is much smaller compared to men, but it exists.”
Prominent Russian prisoner rights activist Olga Romanova said female prisoners are often duped by recruiters.
“There’s no Internet in women’s prisons,” Romanova told RFE/RL. “They only know what’s shown on television. They think they’ll work as nurses. They don’t understand where they’re really going.”
Central Asian governments have repeatedly warned their citizens against taking part in military conflicts abroad, which is a criminal offense punishable by lengthy prison terms. But only a handful of cases have so far reached the courts.