Russian forces launch new recruitment drive in Africa

Moscow has enlisted a new mercenary group to train paid fighters for Putin’s war in Ukraine, writes Kim Sengupta

- Kim Sengupta

Russia is conducting a new recruitment drive for fighters in Africa for its war in Ukraine after suffering heavy casualties on the ground in lethal combat, according to Western intelligence officials.

The enrolment campaign has intensified following the rapid spread of Moscow’s influence on the continent, boosted by the overthrow of pro-Western governments in several countries by military regimes and the subsequent withdrawal of US and European forces.

Mercenaries formerly with the Wagner Group – which was disbanded after the failed coup attempt by its Russian leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was subsequently killed along with his senior hierarchy in an air crash – are training young men, some from tribal militias, for battle in Europe.

Those who join are usually being offered a $2,000 (£1,580) signing-on fee, a monthly salary of $2,200, medical insurance, Russian passports for themselves and their immediate family members, and compensation payments for their family if they are killed or injured.

The recruitment programme is partly due to the unwillingness of Vladimir Putin’s government to carry out another round of unpopular mobilisation in Russia. A partial mobilisation in September 2022 led to an exodus of skilled young workers.

There has also been a drastic fall in the number of convicts being sent to the front line in return for their crimes being pardoned. The justice ministry in Moscow reported that the country’s prison population has fallen from 420,000 before the war to 266,000.