There was a piece on the Beeb last night, about Russia recruiting troops from abroad, to throw into the Ukraine meat grinder. The foreign fighters are stacking up in Ukrainian POW camps, because Russia only swaps Ukrainian POWs for Russians. The Beeb interviewed a couple of the POWs. A guy, supposedly from Yemen, said he had been given all of 10 days training, before being shipped to the front.

I have heard Ukrainians say "the Russians have more men, than we have bullets".

My great, great, grandfather Stokes, started out fighting for the Confederates. He landed in a Union POW camp. As the Union progressively brought more troops from the west, to fight the Civil war, Confederates were recruited from the POW camps to go west. Stokes took that offer. I wonder if the Ukrainians are trying to recruit the foreign fighters in their POW camps to fight the Russians? The foreign fighters have no loyalty to Russia. They were in it for the money.

from the net sifter:

Yes, the Union did recruit Confederate prisoners of war (POWs) from prison camps, especially in the latter part of the war, into new regiments known as the Galvanized Yankees, and many were sent West to perform garrison duty and fight Native Americans, partly to keep them away from Confederate forces and to fill critical manpower needs. About 5,600 former Confederates joined six U.S. Volunteer Infantry regiments and other state units, serving on the western frontier, in Utah, New Mexico, and Montana

Steve...knowing a bit of history is good