Thousands of kilometers from the front lines in Ukraine, another African country recently discovered that dozens of its citizens have been embroiled in Russia’s brutal, high-casualty war of attrition.
At least 18 Zimbabweans have been killed while fighting alongside Russian forces, Information Minister Zhemu Soda said in March, accusing fraudulent employment agencies of promising lucrative jobs in Russia to trick Zimbabweans into joining the war.
“Our citizens are being preyed upon by unscrupulous individuals and networks who operate with complete disregard of human life,” he said at a Harare news conference on March 25, adding that “traffickers use sophisticated methods, often leveraging social media platforms as their primary hunting ground.”
Soda detailed the pattern that Zimbabwean authorities have uncovered: Victims are promised attractive salaries and safe working conditions, only to have their travel documents confiscated and be “coerced into active combat” after arriving in Russia.
“They receive little to no training and are placed in life-threatening situations,” he said. “When they are injured, killed or captured, the recruiters vanish, leaving families in Zimbabwe with no information, no support and no one to hold accountable. In many cases, the promised remuneration is never paid.”
At least 63 other Zimbabweans remain in the conflict zone, Soda said.
According to Ukraine, more than 1,700 Africans are fighting for Russia, although French Institute of International Relations researcher Thierry Vircoulon has estimated that between 3,000 and 4,000 Africans are among 18,000 to 20,000 foreign fighters in the Russian Army.
Now in the fifth year of a conflict that has killed close to 2 million people, Russia has averaged more than 26,000 dead, wounded and missing troops a month, totaling 1.2 million since it invaded Ukraine in 2022, according to January 2026 estimates by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Investigative reports have uncovered the Kremlin’s vast network of recruiters, operatives, shell companies and local handlers who systematically have targeted impoverished Africans to restock the Russian Army with what experts call “cannon fodder.”
Based in Bulawayo, the investigative journalism unit at the Centre for Innovation & Technology (CITEZW) in late February broke the story of Russia recruiting Zimbabwean civilians to fight in Ukraine.
“It is very difficult to know the number of Zimbabweans who have been recruited into Russia mainly because of the networks that were being used to recruit these guys,” CITEZW journalist Zenzele Ndebele told SABC News in a March 25 broadcast. “Some moved from South Africa to Russia. Others were recruited from Zimbabwe. Others were recruited as far as Qatar to Russia. So, I think that they don’t have a clear picture of how many people are there.”
In a March 31 social media post, Soda said the government is working to repatriate four men, while “there are issues of documentation around the others.”
“The president has directed this government to act with urgency and resolve this issue,” Soda said on March 25. “We are seized with this on several critical fronts. First, regarding the deceased, the government is actively engaged in the complex diplomatic and logistical efforts required to repatriate remains of the deceased.
“On law enforcement, the security cluster has been instructed to intensify efforts to identify, track and dismantle the criminal networks behind this trafficking syndicate. Those who are trading in the lives of our citizens for profit will face the full wrath of the law.”
In late March, Harare police intercepted four victims at Robert Mugabe International Airport, leading to the arrests of four Zimbabwean men on human trafficking charges, according to an April 1 CITEZW report. A prosecutor alleged that the men conspired with a Russian national identified as Ivan to traffic six Zimbabweans to Russia.
