Page 50 - RASAS 2025

10 Ruhuna Arts Student’s Annual Sessions (RASAS) -2025
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Illegal Recruitment of Mercenaries: Social and Economic Challenges Faced by

the Families of Victims: Regarding the Russia-Ukraine War

H.M.U.T. Herath
Department of Public Policy, University of Ruhuna
Usharathathsarani45@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

A war is a destructive situation between two or more parties based on power, territory, resources, or beliefs.
The recent Russo-Ukrainian war has affected people all over the world. Russia recruited an illegal mercenary

army for the Russo-Ukrainian war, which involved retired and non-retired military officers from various
countries, including Sri Lanka. This research was conducted on Sri Lankans who participated in the Russo-

Ukrainian war. How did the process of recruiting illegal mercenaries happen? What are the challenges faced
by the families of victims of illegal mercenaries? What are the practical legal measures that can be taken to
address this issue? This research was guided by these research questions. The objectives of the research are

(1) explore the illegal recruitment process of mercenaries and its social and economic repercussions, (2)
analyze the social and economic challenges faced by the mercenaries’ families of individuals recruited and (3)
propose practical and legal options in response to these challenges. This research was conducted using thematic

analysis under a qualitative methodology with fifteen victim families through snowball sampling. In-depth
interviews and semi-structured questionnaires were used to collect data. According to the results of the
research, the economic challenges faced by the victim families include the loss of the financial basis necessary

for the children to receive proper education, a major economic setback in families that do not receive pensions
or any other salary, and the members of the victim families have to depend on others for their livelihood.

Socially, the victim families are under severe mental stress; children who have lost their fathers due to the war
face emotional hardships, some victim families cannot obtain any information about whether their loved ones
are alive or not, and no institution or individual has come forward to provide information about the missing

persons, and the members of the victim families are subjected to various psychological and social pressures
including exposure to gender-based harassment from society. Legally, the research revealed that although
victim families have not received a response from Relevant authorities regarding illegal mercenary

recruitment.

Keywords: Economic impact, Illegal recruitment, Mercenaries, Social challenges, Victim families

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