African prisoners of war captured while fighting for Russia in Ukraine say they want to return to Russia rather than be sent back to their home countries, complicating Kyiv’s efforts to portray Moscow’s recruitment campaign as exploitation of vulnerable foreign citizens, POLITICO writes. One of the captured fighters, a man from the Democratic Republic of the Congo using the call sign Avatar, said he considers Russia his home and hopes to be included in a prisoner exchange that would take him back there.

African POWs have become pawns in Moscow and Kyiv’s battle for influence.

African prisoners of war captured while fighting for Russia in Ukraine say they want to return to Russia rather than be sent back to their home countries, complicating Kyiv’s…