17 South Africans were forced to fight in eastern Ukraine under the guise of labor contracts. President Cyril Ramaphosa has ordered an investigation into the circumstances surrounding their recruitment into mercenary activities.
Reuters writes about this.
These are men between the ages of 20 and 39 who are currently in eastern Ukraine. They sent letters asking for help, and now the authorities are working to bring them home.
South African law prohibits its citizens from participating in military operations or providing military assistance to foreign governments without official permission.
In August, South African authorities began investigating the recruitment of women to work in Russia at the Alabuz factory, which produces Shahed attack drones. In early 2025, the BRICS Student Commission, based in South Africa, advertised vacancies in the construction and hospitality sectors at Alabuz for women aged 18–22.
Mercenaries from foreign countries in Russia
In the full-scale war against Ukraine, mercenaries from at least 48 countries are fighting on Russiaʼs side. In Moscow alone, more than 1 500 foreigners could be recruited into the Russian army from April 2023 to May 2024.
Currently, the facts of recruitment into the Russian army of citizens of Nepal and Somalia have been established. The Russian Federation has also recruited into its army illegal migrants from the Finnish border who were trying to enter the EU through Russia.
As for the recruited citizens of Nepal and India, some of them are already in captivity or have died. There are already videos on social networks with Africans as part of the Russian occupation forces in Ukraine. The Kremlin also cooperates with the North Korean army — its soldiers are involved in fighting in the Kursk region.
In September 2023, a scheme to recruit mercenaries for the war in Ukraine on the side of the occupiers was exposed in Cuba. In April 2025, Volodymyr Zelensky said that two Chinese citizens who fought in the Russian army were captured in the Donetsk region.
In October, an investigation by the Balkan media outlet BIRN revealed that the Russian Federation is recruiting mercenaries in the Balkans for the war against Ukraine.
Author: Anastasia Zaikova
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