Thursday, February 5, 2026 - At
least four Nigerians recruited to fight for Russia in Ukraine have been k!lled
on the battlefield in Ukraine, according to sources familiar with the matter.
According to DailyNigerian the slain Nigerians — Adam Anas,
Akinlawon Tunde Quyuum, Abugu Stanley Onyeka and Balogun Ridwan Adisa, were
recruited on the false pretense of “security job” but ended up being
conscripted and deployed to the war front after three weeks of training.
While the quartet of Messrs Anas, Quyuum Onyeka as well
as Abubakar Adamu (the only survivor) traveled together in November 2025, Mr
Adisa was recruited earlier in the year.
Sources said the Nigerian fighters d!ed on the frontline
on different dates between December 2025 and January 2026.
Investigations by this newspaper shows that the Russian
military did not contact the families of the fallen fighters, just as
they warned other African mercenaries against reporting the incidents to
the families of the deceased fighters.
It was gathered that the news of d3ath of the four
Nigerians was first broken in a secret WhatsApp group opened by the African
mercenaries.
“We heard about the death of our brother through one of
his colleagues. His picture was posted in a secret WhatsApp group. Our family
was never contacted by the Russian authorities,” said a relative of a deceased
conscript, Adam Anas.
The travails Mr Adam and his co-travelers began after an
informal acceptance of the “security job offer” by a Nigerian agent identified
as Emiola Muhammad
The Russian Embassy in Abuja, in an apparent connivance
with the Nigerian recruiting agent, granted the Nigerian mercenaries a
single-entry tourist visa without biometric capture and fulfilling other
application requirements.
Although the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Nigeria
has drawn the attention of applicants that submission must be made in person
and that “reliance on a third party may incur a visa denial”, yet the
conscripts were granted visas without submission in person.
The mercenaries were promised a tempting monthly salary
of 200,000 ruble (about 3.6million naira) as well as allowances and
other perks.
The publication gathered that on arrival at the
Sheremetyevo International Airport, Moscow, the four Nigerian job-seekers were
immediately diverted away from border control queues to another passage,
exempting them from immigration clearance
In a letter obtained by the publication, the Russian
military subtly directed the airport authorities to give them entry clearance
for contract enlistment into the Russian Army.
In the letter, which was addressed to the Chief of the
Border Control Detachment of the Federal Security Service of Russia at
Sheremetyevo International Airport, Colonel L. Yu. Yashin, the Ministry of
Defense of the Russian Federation said Nigerian foreign citizens are scheduled
to arrive at the recruitment center for contract military service (2nd
category) in Yaroslavl (31 Dobrynina Street, Yaroslavl) this November to sign a
military service contract.
Immediately after arrival, the Nigerian job-seekers
were therefore asked to sign the contract written in Russian without English
translation.
Part of the contract is translated as follows, “during
the period of military service under the contract, [you are required] to
conscientiously perform all general, official, and special duties of military
personnel established by legislative and other regulatory legal acts of the
Russian Federation.
“To be faithful to the Military Oath (obligation), to
selflessly serve the people of the Russian Federation, to courageously and
skillfully defend the Russian Federation (paragraph three of Article 16 of the
Internal Service Regulations of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation,
approved by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of November 10,
2007 No. 1495 (hereinafter referred to as the Internal Service Regulations).”
After signing the contract without translation, they were
taken to a military facility where they underwent training for three
weeks.
"Our passports and phones were seized immediately,
but some of us managed to sneak in a phone. After spending hours at a camp in
Moscow, they waited till night time before driving us on a five-hour road
trip to the military camp,” said one of the African conscripts.
A voice note sent by one of the slain Nigerian fighters,
Anas Adam, to his friend paints the precarious situation he found himself
in.
“Please pray for us, we are in the middle of a forest. It
is a two-week journey on foot, and the road is dangerous as there are so many
drones. So far we have trekked for four days. We are one camp away from our
destination. Because of the presence of drones, they are sending us one after
another,” Mr Anas, who left behind a wife and three young children, said in his
last voice note to his friend.
When contacted, the Russian Embassy didn’t respond to our
correspondent’s enquiry on the matter.
However, the spokesman for the Nigerian Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, Kimiebi Ebienfa, said the ministry was unaware of the incident
“It is a sad development and quite unfortunate but the
Ministry is not aware”, Mr Ebienfa said.
Late last year, Ukraine claimed that more than 1,400
people from 36 African nations are fighting for Russia.
In November 2025, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii
Sybiha said the contracts Africans are forced to sign are equivalent to
signing a d3ath sentence.
According to a December report by
the French Institute of International Relations, Russian authorities confiscate
African recruits’ passports and serve as cannon fodder in order to make
incursion into dangerous frontiers
A Nigerian who was recruited to fight for Russia,
Abubakar Adamu, is calling on the federal government to save his soul and
repatriate him to Nigeria.
Writing through his lawyer, Mr Adamu said he was lured to
accept a security guard job in Russia but upon arrival, he was asked to go to
war.
“We are solicitors, our services having been retained by
Abubakar Adamu (herenafter referred to as “our client”) and on whose firm
instruction we write you this notice.
“Our brief revealed that our Client, a Nigeria Citizen,
is currently detained within the Russian Federation (11740 Military Division
Unit) under the guise of military enlistment.
“Our brief further revealed that our client was recruited
under the false pretense of serving as a civilian security guard. However, upon
arrival in Russia, his travel documents were confiscated, and he was coerced
into signing documents written exclusively in the Russian language without the
assistance of an interpreter. These Documents, which he later discovered were
enlistment papers into the Russian Armed Forces, were signed under a
fundamental mistake as to their character and content,” said the letter.
The letter further urged the Russian military to return
his confiscated passports and facilitate his safe return to Nigeria.
“We hereby formally notify the Embassy of the following
legal positions:
Doctrine of Non Est Factum: The purported enlistment
contract is void. There was a total absence of mind and pen as our client did
not understand the nature of the document he was signing due to the language
barrier and lack of translation services.
Fundamental Misrepresentation: The contract is repudiated
ab initio due to the non-disclosure of its true nature and the deceitful tactic
used to lure him into military service.
Violation of International Law: Holding a foreign
national against their will and forcing them into combat service violate
fundamental Human rights and international protocols regarding the treatment of
foreign civilians.
In light of the above, we demand that the Russian
authorities immediately:
Cease any military deployment of Abubakar Adamu;
Return his confiscated passport and travel documents; and
Facilitate his safe and immediate repatriation to
Nigeria.
"We look forward to your prompt cooperation.”
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