11 South Africans recruited to fight for Russia head home

An armoured military car equipped with an electronic warfare complex and an anti-drone mesh drives along the road protected from Russian FPV drones with an anti-drone net in Donetsk region, Ukraine, on January 23, 2026. Picture: (Photo by Dmytro Smolienko/Ukrinform/NurPhoto/AFP Eleven of the 17 South African men recruited to fight for Russia against Ukraine are set to arrive in South Africa soon. The men were allegedly lured to join mercenary forces involved in the Ukraine-Russia war under the pretext of lucrative employment contracts.

Four of the 17 returned home a few days ago; two remain in Russia, with one in a hospital in Moscow, while the other is being processed before finalising his travel arrangements, said President Cyril Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya. Magwenya said Ramaphosa welcomed the return of the South African men as the circumstances surrounding their recruitment remain under investigation. “President Ramaphosa has expressed his heartfelt gratitude to President Vladimir Putin, who responded positively to his call to support the process of returning the men home,” Magwenya said on Tuesday.

The spokesperson said the South African embassy in Moscow, Russia, “will continue to monitor the individual who is in hospital until he has fully recovered to travel”. The men’s repatriation follows a 10 February phone call between Ramaphosa and Putin, where the heads of state pledged their support to the process of returning South Africans fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine. In November last year, the South African government received distress calls from the 17 men, aged between 20 and 39, who were trapped in the war-torn Donbas, Ukraine, and seeking help to return home.

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One of the men is from the Eastern Cape, while the rest come from KwaZulu-Natal. During aninterview with Reutersin December, the father of one of the men detailed the suffering his son was enduring.

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