Smiling broadly and clad in military fatigues, young Iraqi Mohammed Imad's last TikTok post was in a field carved up with heavy vehicle tracks in what appeared to be Ukraine. Smoke was rising behind him.

"Pray for me," read the caption next to a Russian flag.

That was in May. Months went by without a word, only rumours. Mohammed had been taken hostage, was injured, had the flu or had been killed in a Ukrainian drone strike.

Like many Iraqis now fighting in Ukraine, the 24-year-old travelled to Russia without his family's knowledge to enlist in Russia's armed forces, his mother Zeinab Jabbar, 54, told AFP.

Like them, he was drawn by promises of money and a Russian passport.

"He went and never came back," Jabbar said, tears streaming down her face as she clutched a picture of Mohammed i

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