African Leaders Have Made An Unusual Request To Zelenskyy

• 9.10.2026, 8:36

Bloomberg has revealed the details.

African countries, including Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Botswana, have called on Ukraine to repatriate the Africans whom the Ukrainian Armed Forces captured during the war with Russia. This was reported by Bloomberg.

According to Bloomberg, there are at least 213 foreigners in Ukrainian prisoner-of-war camps, 37 of whom are citizens of African countries. In light of this, the governments of some African countries have demanded that Kyiv send them back to their home countries.

African governments claim that some of their citizens were tricked into fighting in the war against Ukraine. They were promised jobs in Russia, but upon arrival on Russian territory, they were forced to sign contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense. After a brief period of military training—and sometimes without any training at all—these foreign nationals were sent to the front lines.

Leaders of some African countries are negotiating directly with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy regarding the future of their citizens who fought as part of the Russian Armed Forces against Ukraine.

For example, Kenyan President William Ruto called Zelenskyy regarding this issue. According to Ukrainian sources, Russia has recruited more than 28,000 foreign nationals from 135 countries to fight against Ukraine. About 1,800 of them are from Africa. More than 5,000 foreign mercenaries serving in the Russian army have been killed.