Ukrainian authorities have identified another Nigerian said to have died while allegedly fighting for Russia in the ongoing war against Ukraine.
In a statement issued on Thursday, Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence named the deceased as Ayebusiwa Olabode Victor, who was born on April 28, 1992. The agency said he was from Ilutitun in Ondo State.
The statement also included the front page of Victor’s Nigerian passport.
According to Ukrainian authorities, the Nigerian was killed in the Kharkiv region near the settlement of Hrafske.
Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence claimed that Victor signed a mercenary contract in late February. The agency noted that the development came about one week after Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned citizens against illegal recruitment into foreign armed conflicts.
The ministry had raised concerns over reports that some Nigerians were allegedly deceived with false promises abroad before being pushed into combat operations.
Before the latest announcement, Ukraine had earlier disclosed that it recovered the bodies of two Nigerians in the Luhansk region. The authorities alleged that the individuals were fighting on the side of Russia in the war, which has lasted for four years.
Russia has consistently rejected accusations that it secretly recruits Nigerians and other Africans for the conflict. Russian officials described the allegations as baseless.
However, Ukraine insisted that information from Russian media personalities contradicted those denials.
“However, official moscow propaganda tells a different story. Mikhail Zvinchuk, a pro-war z-propagandist closely associated with the russian ministry of defense, publicly described the recruitment scheme for the war against Ukraine on the channel of one of the kremlin’s main propagandists, Vladimir Solovyov,” the statement read.
“He confirmed that residents of African countries are lured to Russia through fake job advertisements distributed via Facebook and WhatsApp.
“Victims are issued visas, provided one-way tickets, and promised employment. Upon arrival in moscow, they are met by an intermediary who confiscates their passports under the pretext of processing documents and places them in hostels.
“Within days, they discover that no job exists, their visas have been canceled, and they have no money to return home.
“They are then given a choice: deportation with debt, imprisonment, or signing a contract with the occupation army — the contents of which they often do not even understand due to the language barrier.”
Ukraine also alleged that at least 215 Nigerians had signed contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defence. It added that no fewer than 25 Nigerians had either died or gone missing in the conflict.
The agency further claimed that the number of Nigerians allegedly fighting alongside Russian forces continued to rise despite repeated denials from Russian diplomats.
