The Russian embassy in Kenya on Friday denied that embassy officials were behind networks recruiting soldiers from Africa to fight in Ukraine, calling the accusations "a dangerous and misleading propaganda campaign".
"We deny in the strongest possible terms the involvement of the embassy and its staff in rogue recruitment schemes," said a spokesperson for the embassy in Nairobi. "We refute any collusion with entities or individuals who would force or entrap Kenyans under false pretences."
According to a report compiled by Kenyan intelligence officers and presented to the country's MPs, more than 1,000 Kenyans have travelled to Russia and ended up on the battlefield in the country's war against Ukraine.
This figure is far higher than the 200 Kenyans cited by the authorities
Russia says it is aware that foreigners are fighting in its ranks, but has always presented them as volunteers.
"We denounce a dangerous and misleading propaganda campaign," the embassy spokespeson added.
Nairobi sounds alarm over recruiters luring Kenyans into Russian war effort
'Vast recruitment pool'
The South African government said in November 2025 it had received “distress calls” from 17 men trapped in heavy fighting in Ukraine’s Donbas region, after being tricked into joining mercenary forces.
The group All Eyes on Wagner, an investigative organisation that tracks mercenary activity, published a report this month listing 1,417 fighters from 35 African countries who joined the Russian army between 2023 and mid-2025. It said 316 had died.
It follows a Ukrainian intelligence report published in 2024. The survey said Moscow had recruited foreign nationals from Somalia, Rwanda, Burundi, Congo and Uganda as well as Nepal, India and Cuba, while nationals of several more countries have spoken to the media about their ordeal.
According to the French Institute of International Relations, African countries are fertile ground for Russian recruiters.
Sub-Saharan Africa in particular represents "a vast and easily accessible recruitment pool due to high poverty rates in most countries in the region, combined with a strong desire to emigrate", the think tank said in a report released in December 2025.
The report said Russia’s recruitment campaigns target “poor urban youth” seeking a better life, and that many realise “that Europe is an increasingly inaccessible destination”.
South Africa seeks return of citizens tricked into fighting in Ukraine
RFI spoke to one Cameroonian who thought he was going to Russia to work as a caretaker and ended up on the Ukrainian front.
"What I want is to mobilise the Africans who are travelling to Russia, so that they understand that they are being used. I want to tell people what's going on... so that it stops, so that Africans stop coming here to die," he said.
"We come here to die in a war that we don't know where it came from or why it started."
Kenya's Foreign Minister, Musalia Mudavadi, says he plans to travel to Moscow in March for talks aimed at “conclusively resolving the matter and identifying sustainable solutions”.
Mudavadi said he would also seek the release of Kenyans held as prisoners of war in Ukraine and verify the condition of those hospitalised.
Written with newswires and adapted from this article in French by Anissa El Jabri.
