Ghana has demanded that Russia stop recruiting its citizens to fight against Ukraine, after Accra said 62 Ghanaians had been killed and 15 were missing in the war. Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa raised the issue during talks in Moscow with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on August 17, discussing the “illegal recruitment” of Ghanaians, according to TASS. Lavrov acknowledged Ghanaian citizens had signed contracts with Russia’s Defence Ministry, saying some joined out of “solidarity” and others for money, according to the Russian Foreign Ministry.
In February, Ablakwa visited Ukraine and sought the release of two Ghanaians held there as prisoners of war after being captured fighting for Russia. AP reported that Ghana had by then documented 272 citizens lured into the war since 2022, with 55 confirmed killed, and pledged to dismantle the dark-web recruitment schemes behind it. One of the captured men, 35-year-old Joshua Nkrumah, had left a pregnant wife before being recruited, according to a BBC report. President Volodymyr Zelensky said he had held “detailed discussions” with Ablakwa on how Russia recruits Ghanaians and other Africans, according to Al Jazeera.
Ukraine’s foreign minister said in February that more than 1,700 Africans from 36 countries were fighting for Russia, Reuters reported, many recruited through fraudulent job or student-visa schemes. Russia denies illegal recruitment, but the pattern suggests Moscow’s foreign-enlistment system shifts battlefield losses onto economically vulnerable recruits abroad while easing pressure to mobilize more Russians at home.
