Victor still runs his fingers over the ridged scars on his forearm, a lasting mark of the day a Ukrainian drone tore through his position on the front line.
The blast knocked him flat, spraying metal fragments through his arm and filling the air with dirt and smoke.
For a few seconds, he said, there was only ringing in his ears and the taste of dust in his mouth. Then came the shouting.
By then, he was already months into a war he insists was never his.
Victor is one of four Kenyans who told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that what began as routine job applications in Nairobi ended with rifles in their hands and orders barked in Russian on the battlefields of Ukraine.
