Russia Has Devised A New Way To Recruit Africans For The War
3- 22.09.2026, 15:43
- 1,200
Young men are being offered roles in a "film project."
Russia never tires of devising ways to recruit people for the bloody war it is waging in Ukraine. Through deception and promises of high pay in civilian professions (or, at the very least, in rear support services for the troops), it has managed to lure thousands of people from poor countries in Africa and Asia into the country and then send them to the front lines. A new twist in the recruitment campaign has been the offer to participate in a movie production.
The ad, designed in the style of an action movie poster, reads: “Global casting call. New film project. Seeking Africans for male roles.” This ad appeared on Facebook and featured an AI-generated image of Black men in military uniforms, according to Politico. The captions, whether intentionally or not, play on the word “shooting” (which in English can mean both “shooting” and “filming”).
The recruiters’ main target is young men who cannot find a steady job—or any job at all—and are unable to earn a decent living due to the dire economic situation in their home countries. The African nonprofit organization Code for Africa has identified 89 websites, seven accounts on Facebook and other social media platforms, and 39 accounts or channels on messaging apps used as part of the Russian operation, with new ones constantly emerging.
As a result, residents of India, Sri Lanka, Cuba, Kenya, Nepal, Botswana, South Africa, and other countries have been drawn into the war in Ukraine. Leaders of some of these countries—such as South Africa and Kenya—have even personally demanded that Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov put an end to this practice in their countries.
Moscow has created a massive propaganda machine with tens of thousands of bots, influencers, and content marketers tasked with crafting a compelling narrative for Africans in which Russia is portrayed as the defender of their freedom, sovereignty, and dignity, Will Brown /b>, a senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told Politico:
At first, we thought this propaganda machine was only meant to influence public opinion. But now it’s clear that it’s also being used to recruit desperate young people to the front lines. [Those who end up there] report racial abuse, how their money is stolen and they are forced to sign contracts [with the Russian Ministry of Defense] whose terms they do not understand, and after a week of training, they are thrown into a minefield.
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