South Africa's government said on Thursday it will investigate the involvement of 17 of its citizens in the war in Ukraine.
The government said in a statement on Thursday that it has received "distressing calls" from citizens aged between 20 and 39 who have been "trapped in the war-torn Donbas", with reference to Ukraine's eastern region where heavy fighting is underway. Authorities said the men were lured to join the war “under the pretext of lucrative employment contracts” and ordered an investigation into “the circumstances that led to the recruitment of these young men into these seemingly mercenary activities.”
“President Cyril Ramaphosa has ordered an investigation into the circumstances that led to the recruitment of these young men into these seemingly mercenary activities,” said the statement. Pretoria is “working through diplomatic channels to secure the return of these young men,” the statement added, without specifying in which sense they were stuck.
Although Pretoria did not clarify on which side its 17 citizens were fighting, an unnamed Ukrainian intelligence official told Politico that it was "clear" those men were fighting on the side of Russia. "Otherwise, South Africa would have said so publicly," the official explained. "We’re not luring anyone into the army. There was never a scandal. But their BRICS friends do," the official said. The BRICS group -made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - has maintained close ties with the Kremlin despite Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
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.
The recent development in South Africa has resurfaced concerns about foreign mercenaries' involvement in the war that is nearing its fourth anniversary and has killed over a million people. It should be noted that Russia has intensified recruitment of mercenaries in Africa and the Middle East as it's struggling with heavy losses and manpower shortages. According to Ukrainian military officials, Russia's combat losses surpass one million killed or wounded. Earlier, the open-source intelligence group Frontelligence Insight,Russian recruiters often target nationals from economically vulnerable countries, luring them into the army with good salaries by false promises that they will be given non-combat roles.
