At least three people were killed and 34 others were injured today (Thursday) by a Russian strike that targeted a shopping center in the city of Pavlograd in central-eastern Ukraine, according to what the authorities announced.
Interior Minister Ivan Vyzhevsky said via Telegram: “About an hour ago, the Russians attacked a shopping center in the center of Pavlograd, in broad daylight, when the streets were crowded,” Agence France-Presse reported.
In parallel with the continuation of Russian strikes on Ukrainian territory, Amnesty International brought new accusations against Moscow related to the mechanisms of recruiting fighters for the war.
The organization said today (Thursday) that Russia's recruitment of foreign citizens to fight in the war in Ukraine "amounts to human trafficking."
She explained in a press statement regarding the new report, “Many recruits were promised attractive salaries and incentives, which was not fulfilled. While some received partial payments before being captured, many spoke of never receiving anything. She added that “in addition to financial rewards, all those interviewed spoke of the promise of obtaining Russian citizenship as a special incentive,” according to the German News Agency.
Amnesty International said on Thursday that Russia's recruitment of foreign citizens to fight in the war in Ukraine "amounts to human trafficking."
The human rights organization said, in a press statement regarding the new report, “Many recruits were promised attractive salaries and incentives, which was not fulfilled. While some received partial payments before being captured, many spoke of never receiving anything. She added, according to the German News Agency, “In addition to financial rewards, all those interviewed spoke of the promise of obtaining Russian citizenship as a special incentive.”
Amnesty International said that Russian recruitment officials used coercion, fraud, and deception to persuade foreigners to join the Russian army. “The level of exploitation and coercion in this operation led us to conclude that in many cases this amounted to human trafficking as defined in the Palermo Protocol” of the United Nations, said Agnes Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International.
Amnesty International said that it interviewed more than a dozen foreigners, including people from Colombia, Cuba, Egypt, Somalia, and South Africa, during six visits to Ukrainian camps for prisoners of war between 2024 and 2026.
She added that only three of those she interviewed knowingly signed the contract to fight in Ukraine.
The organization indicated that prisoners of war from Brazil and Sri Lanka told Amnesty International that their passports and mobile phones were withdrawn after signing the contracts.
They added that the contracts were only in Russian, and no one spoke English. The recruits received inadequate initial military training that lasted approximately two weeks, according to the organization. The organization drew attention to the fact that it was unable to conduct investigations in Russia, as the organization has been banned there since May 2025.
Amnesty International said it had not obtained evidence of possible human trafficking involving citizens of foreign countries in the Ukrainian army. But the organization said there were signs of corruption, discrimination and abuse by superiors, and the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry was reportedly investigating the matter.
Currently, there are slightly less than 16,000 foreign citizens from more than 70 countries, including about 40 percent from Latin American countries, serving in the Ukrainian army, which totals about 880,000 soldiers, according to the latest information issued by Kiev.
According to Ukraine, more than 28,000 foreign citizens have joined the Russian army since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The General Staff in Kiev recently said that the total number of Russian forces is slightly above 720,000 soldiers.
A study showed that about a fifth of children and teenagers in Germany have been exposed, at some point, to sexual grooming over the Internet, according to what was reported by the German News Agency.
19 percent of survey participants said they had been exposed to at least one of the forms included in the study.
This came in a study conducted by the Media Authority of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, western Germany. According to the study, more than a quarter of the age group between 14 and 17 years were subjected to this luring, compared to about one in every eight children between the ages of 8 and 13 years.
Online sexual grooming means the intentional solicitation of minors for the purpose of having sexual contact with them over the Internet. The study included questions about different forms of this, such as asking the minor to send photos or videos, or to undress in front of the camera, or to meet him in real life.
The percentage of participants who went through such experiences decreased compared to previous years. In 2025, 24 percent said they had been exposed to at least one form of sexual grooming online, compared to 25 percent in 2024. The study also observed a decline in all forms that were inquired about individually. Teenagers are still more vulnerable than younger children.
Among the most common experiences is adults seeking to arrange a real-life meeting with a minor or asking him for pictures. 11 percent of participants had previously been contacted online by an adult who wanted to meet them. 10 percent were asked to send photos or videos of themselves.
On the other hand, the study showed an increase in levels of awareness of the phenomenon and its terminology among children and adolescents, as 43 percent said that they had heard of it or read about it before, compared to 38 percent during the previous year. The percentage of children and adolescents who know how to behave when exposed to inappropriate communications has also increased compared to what was the case in previous years. Among those who were exposed to this phenomenon, 70 percent cut off contact with the person in question, and a similar percentage of those surveyed reported that they had blocked this person, while 47 percent said that they had spoken to someone else about what they had been exposed to.
For his part, Director of the Media Authority for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Tobias Schmid, said: “Children cannot be held responsible for defending themselves alone against attempts at manipulation and deception practiced by adults over the Internet,” stressing the need for continued awareness of this phenomenon.
A total of 2,095 children and adolescents living in Germany, aged between 8 and 17 years, participated in the study, which was conducted online from June 9 to July 6, 2026. Specific proportions were taken into account in selecting the sample according to age, gender, and type of school attended by the participants.
