South Africa has been thrown into a storm of shock and confusion after it emerged that 17 young South African men were deceived into joining mercenary groups fighting in Ukraine’s war zone. Ukraine’s ambassador to Pretoria, Oleksandr Shcherba, confirmed the alarming development during an interview on Thursday, urging South Africans to stay away from Russia’s invasion and warning that foreign fighters are being manipulated into a deadly conflict that has nothing to do with them.
The South African presidency revealed that the men — aged between 20 and 39 — reached out through “distress calls,” pleading for help as they found themselves trapped in the heart of the fighting in the Donbas region, one of the most dangerous hotspots of the war. According to officials, they were recruited under the false promise of “lucrative employment contracts,” with no clear understanding of the reality they were walking into.
While the government did not immediately clarify which side they had been forced to join, both Kyiv and investigative reports from News24 confirmed that the men had been recruited to fight on the Russian side.
This comes as Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga disclosed that more than 1,400 African citizens from 36 countries have been identified fighting within Russia’s ranks — a growing concern that points to widespread exploitation of vulnerable people across the continent.
Ambassador Shcherba did not mince words. He called on South Africans to recognize the manipulation at play, saying Russia was violating South African laws by recruiting citizens into a foreign war. The country’s law strictly prohibits its citizens from joining foreign armies without government authorization.
Shcherba also revealed that since the news broke, families of the trapped men have been flooding him with emotional emails, desperately searching for answers and praying for their loved ones’ safe return. “Don’t do that to your mothers and fathers and sisters,” he implored, urging young South Africans to resist being drawn into a conflict that is “barbaric, unfair, unjust,” and entirely disconnected from African interests.
The matter has now escalated politically. President Cyril Ramaphosa has ordered a formal investigation into the recruitment process, following claims by News24 that the controversial MK party — aligned with former President Jacob Zuma — had allegedly sent the men to Russia under the guise of security training. Zuma has long been known for his close ties to Moscow, raising further questions and tensions around the unfolding situation.
For Shcherba, any evidence of political involvement from South African figures would make the situation even more dangerous. “It makes the whole situation even more precarious,” he said.
In a final plea, the ambassador urged citizens to stay out of the conflict entirely. “This is not your war,” he stressed. “It is not the war of any decent person on this planet.”
He described the recruitment of the 17 men as a tragic manipulation — Africans being pulled into what he called “a colonial war” that has nothing to do with them. For him, the sight of African men fighting in a conflict driven by foreign powers is “especially insane.”
As investigations continue and families wait anxiously, South Africa is left grappling with its citizens trapped in a war they never intended to fight — and a criminal network that may stretch far deeper than anyone expected.