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Ghana Has Demanded Russia Stop Recruiting Its Citizens to Fight Against Ukraine
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Ghana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa announced following talks in Moscow that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov agreed to work on addressing the illegal recruitment of Ghanaian citizens to fight against Ukraine, as reported by Interfax on August 17.
According to data provided by Ablakwa, 62 Ghanaian nationals have already been killed in Ukraine, while another 15 remain missing.
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In total, investigations indicate that by the end of 2025, Russia had recruited approximately 18,000 citizens from 128 countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, with at least 3,300 of them killed in action.
During the discussions, Lavrov acknowledged that Ghanaian citizens had signed contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense. He stated that they did so "out of solidarity with a country that also helped them fight racism" and "for material financial reasons."
The Russian foreign minister added that Moscow has received similar requests from other governments, noting, "In the Ministry of Defense, there is a special structure that considers them, and I am convinced that it will also consider the additional requests that arrived today from our Ghanaian friends."
The recruitment of foreign nationals for Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has raised growing concerns across the region. Similar demands to halt recruitment schemes were previously issued to Moscow by authorities in South Africa and Kenya.
In February, Kenyan intelligence reported that Russia had fraudulently lured more than 1,000 Kenyans to join its military, with many promised positions as truck drivers or security guards, according to BBC.
South African authorities also detained five individuals suspected of recruiting mercenaries for the Russian military. Reports from November 2025 indicated that Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, daughter of former South African President Jacob Zuma, was involved in these operations.
She reportedly convinced 20 men that they were traveling to Russia for bodyguard training courses to later serve in her father's political party.
In July, government officials in Botswana also reported deceptive recruitment of their citizens, highlighting that the number of victims was rising at an alarming rate.
Following these reports, Panama raised similar accusations against Moscow. In response, the Russian Foreign Ministry maintained that "the signed contracts are of a voluntary nature."
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It was previously announced that Russia was using a system of sequential identification numbers to mark foreign recruits serving in its armed forces.
According to Ukrainian military intelligence, standard military identification tags were replaced with numbers applied to clothing or directly to the recruits' skin using long-lasting dyes like henna or jagua.
Russian authorities implemented these markings to strengthen control over foreign personnel and simplify their tracking, while Ukrainian officials noted that Russian police even checked foreign students and migrant workers for these identification numbers to catch potential deserters.
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