The frontline town of Kostiantynivka damaged by a Russian military strike in Donetsk region, Ukraine. — Reuters
SOUTH African father of three, Dubandlela, was filled with pride when his 20-year-old son signed up last July for what he believed was elite training as a VIP bodyguard in Russia.
Five months later, pride has given way to despair. His son, he believes, was caught in a recruitment scam that sent him – and at least 16 other South African men – into Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“I blame myself,” said Dubandlela, 56, speaking at his home in Durban on South Africa’s eastern coast. He said he could not afford university fees for his son and hoped the overseas opportunity would give him a future.
Instead, Dubandlela says, his son was conscripted by an unspecified mercenary group and sent to the front lines in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, where fighting has raged since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
On his phone are images his son sent from what he described as a position near the front.
In one, the young man stands stiffly in combat fatigues, clutching an AK-47 assault rifle. In another, he lies on a concrete floor in a basement barely large enough to sit up in, sheltering from drones. He is so thin his ribs are visible.
Dubandlela asked that neither his full name nor his son’s be used, fearing retaliation or harm.
“He tells me they dig trenches all day in the freezing cold,” Dubandlela said. “Sometimes there’s no food for days. Sometimes no water.”
His son, he said, often cries during brief phone calls.
“‘I want to come back home. Please, Daddy, talk to someone’,” Dubandlela recalled.
Reuters was unable to independently verify all aspects of accounts provided by Dubandlela and two South African recruits interviewed by telephone from Donbas. Much of the region is now under Russian control, and access is severely restricted.
The case emerged publicly in early November, when South African authorities said they had received distress calls from 17 men aged between 20 and 39 who claimed they were trapped in Donbas after being misled about the nature of their work.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s spokesman, Vincent Magwenya, said the matter was receiving “the highest possible attention”.
“They are facing grave danger to their lives,” Magwenya said, adding that discussions were under way with authorities in Russia – and to a lesser extent Ukraine – to secure the men’s release.
“The information we have is that they were bungled into the Russian military forces,” he said.
An investigation by South Africa’s elite Hawks police unit is under way, treating the case as a suspected crime against the state. South African law prohibits citizens from providing unauthorised military assistance to foreign armed forces or mercenary groups.
The probe has focused in part on alleged political connections surrounding the recruitment.
One former lawmaker linked to the case has denied wrongdoing and said she was herself deceived. The investigation remains active.
According to two recruits interviewed by Reuters, the men arrived in Russia in July and were soon presented with contracts written in Russian in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don.
With no translator present, they were reluctant to sign, they said, but were reassured the documents related only to security training.
“We were shocked when we realised we were going to war,” one recruit said.
By August, they said, it was clear they were being sent to the front.
WhatsApp messages reviewed by Reuters show a recruit warning that they were preparing to move into combat, only to be reassured that they would “only patrol” and that there was “no stress”.
Soon after, phones and bank cards were confiscated, the recruits said.
One of the men, a 40-year-old South African bodyguard with three children, said they often survived on bread and tinned fish.
They loaded artillery shells into launchers with minimal equipment and little training.
“Every day you fear you won’t survive,” he said, speaking from Donbas. Reuters last spoke to him in mid-December.
The South Africans are not alone.
Several African governments have reported citizens being lured into Russia’s war under false promises of work or training.
Kenya has said more than 200 of its citizens were fighting for Russia in Ukraine, while Botswana has reported similar cases.
Ukraine’s foreign minister has said more than 1,400 citizens from dozens of African countries are fighting alongside Russian forces. Moscow does not comment publicly on foreign fighters.
Among them was 22-year-old Kenyan David Kuloba.
His mother Susan shared with Reuters a copy of the contract he signed in Russian, pledging loyalty to the Russian Federation and military service for the duration specified.
When he realised he was being sent to Ukraine, she said, he reassured her that he would be safe.
That was the last time she heard his voice.
Weeks later, Susan received a WhatsApp message from one of her son’s fellow fighters.
David, she was told, had been killed in an explosion on the front line.
Back in Durban, Dubandlela scrolls through the photos on his phone, searching for signs his son is still alive.
“I sent my child to look for a better life,” he said quietly. “Now he’s trapped in someone else’s war.” — Reuters
