‘I didn’t know how to shoot’: how African men have been tricked into fighting for Russia

Submission statement: this is an investigation on the deceptive recruitment of African men into the Russian war machine, featuring a direct testimony from a 24 yo Kenyan man, Stephen Oduor [pseudonym], who was lured into Russia on promises of a steady pay as a plumber, then forcibly enrolled into the Russian armed forces and sent to the frontlines in Ukraine, where he was wounded in action.

Thousands of Africans, men and women, have been recruited through deception and force by the Russian state to fuel its war effort in Ukraine with the complicity of local intermediaries, such as former South African president Jacob Zuma's daughter Duduzile, who was forced to resign from Parliament after being exposed as having sent 17 men to fight for Russia under pretenses of security training. Kenya, Stephen Oduor's country of origin, recently cracked down on recruitment networks, estimating that around 200 Kenyan nationals had been lured into the Russian war effort since the start of their full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

This investigation also discusses the dehumanization and racism inflicted by Russian personnel against forcibly recruited Africans, who are routinely mistreated, humiliated, and used as "human shields" to clear mined terrain or protect Russians from Ukrainian bombings.

Yet another proof that Russia has globalized its aggression against Ukraine, by trying to fill its manpower issues with international human trafficking.