Moscow has refuted a report that Nigerian students were being “forced” to fight in Ukraine or face deportation from Russia.
The Russian Embassy in Nigeria has denied reports claiming Nigerian students based in Russia are being coerced into signing up for the military to help Moscow in its invasion of Ukraine, Nigerian media reported on Wednesday.
Earlier this week, a Bloomberg report alleged that Russia has been forcing African students to join in the fight against Ukraine before getting a renewal for their visas.
The report by the international news agency suggested Moscow is sending thousands of migrants and foreign students, including Nigerians, to fight alongside its troops in the war against Ukraine. The Bloomberg article had also been circulated among Nigerian media outlets.
“Some Africans in Russia on work visas have been detained and forced to decide between deportation or fighting,” the Bloomberg report quoted a European official as saying.’
In April, young individuals from various African nations converged on the Russian city of Alabuga SEZ in Tatarstan, seeking employment and education. The Alabuga SEZ has announced that students from Rwanda,
Sri Lanka, Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya will soon embark on training for new professions and commence Russian language lessons.
On Wednesday, the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Nigeria released a statement, saying it was “bewildered” by the publication of the claims by Nigerian news outlets.
“The Embassy of the Russian Federation is compelled to emphasize that such news is not only false but also damages Russian-Nigerian educational cooperation by misleading numerous scholarship and grant applicants as well as their partners, who could be extremely concerned by such fakes,” Nigerian newspapers The Guardian and The Punch cited the embassy as saying.
It added that “Nigerian students face no difficulties in extending their visas.”
On Tuesday, the Nigerian government also responded to the media reports, also denying that Nigerian students based in Russia were being coerced into signing up for the Kremlin’s mission in Ukraine.
The embassy thanked the Nigerian Foreign Ministry for “debunking the fake news aimed at undermining the friendship and cooperation between Russia and Nigeria.”
The war in Ukraine has had a ripple effect across the globe, and Africa is no exception. While African nations themselves have remained largely neutral, a growing number of Africans are finding themselves fighting on both sides of the conflict.
The brutal war in Ukraine has had a ripple effect far beyond Europe’s borders, impacting Africa in a complex and often unseen way. While African nations themselves have remained largely neutral in the conflict, a growing number of Africans are being drawn into the fight, some for idealistic reasons and others out of desperation.
Official figures suggest over 200 Africans have joined the Ukrainian forces, while estimates indicate more than a thousand have enlisted with Russia. These individuals, often referred to as soldiers of fortune, were enticed by promises of substantial payments and potential citizenship post-conflict.
At the end of March, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to enroll 150,000 conscripts into the military.
All men in Russia are required to serve one year of compulsory military service and, according to Reuters, Moscow has approximately 1.32 million active military personnel and two million reserve military personnel.
As of the end of May this year, the UK Ministry of Defense said over 465,000 Russian personnel had been killed or wounded since the onset of Russia’s invasion of its neighbor in February 2022.