Botswana reports mass recruitment of its citizens for the war against Ukraine
Authorities of the Southern African state of Botswana have reported a sharp increase in cases of fraudulent recruitment of the country's citizens to participate in Russia's war against Ukraine. This was stated by the Ministry of International Affairs of the republic, Bloomberg writes .
According to the ministry, people are lured with offers of employment abroad, after which they find themselves involved in military operations. The ministry noted that the number of victims is increasing, and reports of difficult and dangerous conditions are coming from citizens already in the combat zone.
In this regard, the authorities urged residents of Botswana to carefully check offers of work abroad and not to trust dubious intermediaries.
Botswana is not the first African country to report similar recruitment schemes. Previously, authorities in Kenya and the Republic of South Africa made similar statements.
According to Kenyan intelligence services, Russia may have recruited more than a thousand Kenyan citizens. It was reported that many of them were promised jobs as drivers or security guards, and they arrived in Russia on tourist visas through third countries.
In the Republic of South Africa, law enforcement agencies reported the arrest of suspects in organizing the recruitment of citizens for service in the Russian armed forces.
Russian legislation allows foreign citizens to conclude contracts with the Ministry of Defense from November 2022, and stateless persons from July 2024.
According to The Telegraph, by the end of 2025, Russia had lured about 18,000 citizens from 128 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America to the war, with at least 3,300 of them killed in battles. The publication noted that many such recruits die within the first 72 hours of being sent to the front due to a lack of proper training and understanding of where they have ended up. A number of states, including Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Jordan, and Kenya, demanded that Moscow stop recruitment and return their citizens home.
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