At least 55 Ghanaians have been killed in Russia’s war in Ukraine, Ghana’s foreign minister said after visiting Kyiv this week.
Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said that up to 272 Ghanaians were presumably “lured into battle” since 2022, citing Ukrainian authorities. Describing this figure as “depressing and frightening”, Ablakwa said Ghana "cannot turn a blind eye to these heartbreaking statistics".
Ablakwa, said in a post on X on Thursday: “We were informed that 272 Ghanaians are believed to have been lured into battle in the war-year-war in Ukraine since 2022 for which an estimated 55 have been killed and 2 captured as prisoners of war.” He stressed that the Ghanaian government’s commitment to expose and dismantle all “dark web illegal recruitment schemes” to prevent the country’s youth from being recruited into the war. "This is not our war and we cannot allow our youth to become human shields for others," he stressed.
Ukraine's foreign minister said on Wednesday that over 1,700 people from 36 countries in Africa were fighting in Russia’s war. The Kremlin has denied illegally recruiting African citizens to fight in Ukraine. Four more Kenyans and two south Africans were also killed in the Russia-Ukraine war. It should be noted that on Thursday, police in Kenya charged a man accused of luring young men to the war in Ukraine under the pretext of finding them jobs in Russia. According to Kenya's National Intelligence Service, NIS, some 1,000 Kenyans have been recruited to fight for Russia. Russian embassy in Kenya has denied accusations that it was involved in recruiting people to fight in Ukraine war.
Accounts of African men lured to Russia with job offers but ultimately deployed to fight on Ukraine’s frontlines have grown increasingly common in recent months, straining relations between Moscow and several of the affected countries.
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