Men aged 20 to 39 ‘lured to join mercenary force’ in Donbas region have requested assistance to return home
South Africa is launching an investigation into how 17 of its citizens ended up in the war-torn region of Donbas in eastern Ukraine.
The office of the South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, said it had received distress calls from 17 men, aged between 20 and 39, who had been “lured to join mercenary forces involved in the Ukraine-Russia war under the pretext of lucrative employment contracts” and were now requesting assistance to return home.
The discovery has drawn attention to the role that foreign fighters are playing in the war as it drags towards its fourth anniversary with a mounting death toll on both sides.
It is not clear which side the men were fighting for, although their presence in Donbas, a region of Ukraine that is largely occupied by Russia, as well as the reference to them having been lured by the promise of financial reward strongly suggests they were enlisted by Russia.
