No less than 4 young Nigerians recruited to fight for Russia in the ongoing Ukraine war have been k!lled on the battlefield.
According to the Daily Nigerian, the deceased were identified as Adam Anas, Akinlawon Tunde Quyuum, Abugu Stanley Onyeka, and Balogun Ridwan Adisa.
Sources familiar with the matter said the victims were deceived with promises of a security job but were later conscripted into the Russian army and deployed to the dangerous war front after undergoing three weeks of military training.
While Anas, Quyuum, Onyeka and Abubakar Adamu (the only known survivor) travelled together to Russia in November 2025, Adisa was reportedly recruited earlier in the year.
Investigations revealed that the Nigerians d!ed on different dates between December 2025 and January 2026 during frontline combat operations.
Sources said the Russian military did not notify the families of the fallen fighters and warned other African recruits against reporting the d3aths.
“We heard about the d3ath of our brother through one of his colleagues. His picture was posted in a secret WhatsApp group. Our family was never contacted by the Russian authorities,” a relative of Adam Anas said.
The victims were allegedly recruited by a Nigerian agent identified as Emiola Muhammad.
Findings showed that the Embassy of the Russian Federation, in apparent collaboration with the agent, issued single-entry tourist visas to the recruits without biometric capture or in-person submission, contrary to standard embassy requirements.
Despite the embassy’s public warning that applications must be submitted personally, the Nigerians were granted visas through a third party.
The recruits were reportedly promised 200,000 rubles monthly (about ₦3.6m), alongside allowances and other benefits.
Upon arrival at Sheremetyevo International Airport, Moscow, the Nigerians were allegedly diverted from immigration queues and granted entry without normal clearance.
A letter obtained by Daily Nigerian showed that the Russian Ministry of Defence had instructed border officials to admit the Nigerians for contract military enlistment.
They were later taken to a recruitment centre in Yaroslavl, where they were forced to sign military contracts written in Russian, without translation or interpretation.
Part of the contract reportedly required them to “courageously and skillfully defend the Russian Federation” in line with military regulations.
After signing the documents, the recruits were taken to a military camp where their phones and passports were confiscated.
One African recruit said some managed to secretly keep phones.
“Our passports and phones were seized immediately. They waited till night before driving us for five hours to a military camp,” the source said.
A final voice note sent by Adam Anas before his d3ath described their ordeal.
“Please pray for us. We are in the middle of a forest. It is a two-week journey on foot and the road is dangerous because of drones. They are sending us one after another,” he said.
Anas reportedly left behind a wife and three children.
Efforts to get a response from the Russian embassy were unsuccessful.
However, the spokesperson for Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kimiebi Ebienfa, said the ministry was unaware of the development.
“It is a sad development and quite unfortunate, but the ministry is not aware,” he said.
The only known survivor, Abubakar Adamu, has appealed to the Nigerian government for intervention and repatriation.
In a letter written through his lawyer, Adamu said he was coerced into military service after being promised a civilian security job.
His lawyers argued that the enlistment contract was invalid, citing misrepresentation, language barrier, and violation of international law, and demanded his immediate release and return to Nigeria.
Ukraine has previously claimed that over 1,400 Africans from 36 countries are fighting for Russia.
In November 2025, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister, Andrii Sybiha, said such contracts were equivalent to signing a d3ath sentence.
A December report by the French Institute of International Relations also accused Russian authorities of confiscating African recruits’ passports and deploying them as cannon fodder in high-risk combat zones.
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