A CNN investigation has uncovered new details about the recruitment tactics of Russian agents on the continent, exposing the rosy promises made to African job hunters and the reality of forced military service and frontline fighting that many instead encounter.
CNN says it reviewed hundreds of chats on messaging apps, military contracts, visas, flights, and hotel bookings, as well as gathered firsthand accounts from African fighters in Ukraine, to understand how Russia entices African men to bolster its ranks.
Several African governments, including Botswana, Uganda, South Africa, and Kenya, have acknowledged the scale of the problem.
Local media have detailed how citizens were duped into becoming mercenaries for Russia in Ukraine, and officials have warned others against following suit.
Russia’s Defence and Foreign Ministries have not responded to CNN’s request for comment on allegations that some recruits were misled or coerced. CNN also reached out to the Russian embassy in Nairobi for comment.
CNN spoke with 12 African fighters still in Ukraine—from Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, and Uganda—who said they were offered civilian jobs such as drivers or security guards.
Most said they were promised a signing bonus of $13,000 (about Sh1.7 million), monthly salaries as high as $3,500 (about Sh450,000), and Russian citizenship at the end of their service.
But when they landed in Russia, they say they were forced into the military and given little training before being deployed to the front line.
They were made to sign military service contracts in Russian without lawyers or translation provided, they said. Some had their passports confiscated, effectively making it impossible to flee.
Even though Russian law states that only foreigners who know the language can become soldiers, none of the Africans interviewed by CNN were Russian speakers.
Their salaries and bonuses differed from those offered to Russian soldiers and even varied among the recruits. Some also accused unscrupulous recruitment agents or Russian colleagues of stealing from their bank accounts.
“While we were on the front lines, a Russian soldier forced me to give him my bank card and PIN at gunpoint,” one African fighter told CNN on condition of anonymity. When he checked, nearly $15,000 (about Sh2 million) from his bonus had been withdrawn, leaving his account nearly empty, he said. “I’ve been here for seven months, and I haven’t been paid a single cent. They keep promising to check, but nothing happens.”
Four others who came to Russia with him have died, he said while fighting back tears.
The translated clauses of the Russian military service contract obtained by CNN paint a far more binding and long-term picture of service than recruitment agents typically advertise.
Beyond the headline promise of pay and benefits, the contract locks a serviceman into broad, open-ended obligations, including participation in combat operations and deployments abroad, strict loyalty requirements, and an obligation to reimburse the state for military training if required, with the actual sum left blank at signing.
The fine print also extends into civilian life. Access to state secrets can trigger bans on foreign travel, mandatory surrender of passports, limits on privacy, and lifelong restrictions on disclosing sensitive information.
While recruitment agents advertise quick pathways into civilian employment, the contract states that meaningful help with post-service jobs—through free professional retraining in a civilian specialty—only becomes available after at least five full years of service (excluding time spent in military education), and only if dismissal occurs for specific reasons such as age, health, or contract expiration.
Patrick Kwoba, 39, was convinced by an African friend in the Russian military to sign up after seeing how good his life looked on social media.
A carpenter who had also worked on construction sites in Qatar and Somalia, he paid a Kenyan agent about $620 (about Sh80,000) on the promise that he would get a signing bonus of $23,000 (about Sh3 million) in Moscow.
“I thought I was going to be a security guard in the army, not a combatant,” he told CNN in Nairobi, where he returned after deserting.
He described the four months he spent in Ukraine as “hell” and considers his return home a miracle.
He was given just three weeks of basic military training and firearms handling, he said, before being deployed to Ukraine.
A few weeks in, Kwoba was injured in an ambush by a Ukrainian drone and a subsequent grenade attack but said his Russian partner turned hostile rather than help.
“When you’re wounded, the code is ‘3-star’ when you ask for first aid. I told my Russian partner that, but he chased me away and started shooting at me,” Kwoba recalled. He eventually got help but knew he had to flee before he could be sent back to fight.
“So long as you’ve stepped into the Russian military, you escape or you die,” he said. “There’s no way that you’re going to Russia and come back alive. Because if you finish your contract, these people force you to stay there. They can’t release you.”
He escaped when he was given time off to recuperate in St Petersburg, managing to reach the Kenyan embassy in Moscow and get onto the next flight home.
Embassy staff issued him a temporary travel document to avoid detection, he said, since he had overstayed the single-entry tourist visa he used to enter Russia in September 2025.
Kwoba still needs surgery to remove fragments from his buttocks and back thighs, but he knows he is lucky to be alive.
Kenyan photographer Charles Njoki, 32, also encountered the realities of the war firsthand. Hoping to earn more to support his pregnant wife and family, he applied directly through a Russian army recruitment portal for a drone operator role and got a response within two hours, he told CNN.
He sold his car to pay for his flight and accommodation and landed in Russia within a week, planning to surprise his parents with a big windfall and Russian citizenship at the end of his service. His plans quickly went awry.
Njoki claims African fighters were deliberately exposed in dangerous situations as bait for Ukrainian drones. “They tell people that you’re going to guard the place, that you won’t go to the front as an assault, but you find yourself at the front, fighting.”
He too ran away from St Petersburg, reaching the Kenyan embassy in Moscow, from where he made his way home.
“They’re lying to people. The money that they tell people they’re paying—that is not true,” he said of the Russian recruiters.
Ukraine has urged African nations to halt the flow of men into Russia’s ranks. “If they’re on the front lines, they’re our enemies and Ukraine defends itself,” Ukraine’s ambassador to Kenya, Yurii Tokar, told CNN. “This pipeline should be stopped.”
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