By: C. William Hanson Jr., Emmanuel Chizaram

Having been on part-time leave from our gazette this month, I have been happy to welcome two new members of our team. They join our amazing stalwarts, Jack Hughes, who is our Associate Editor, and Tristan Palazzo, our Circulation Manager and Junior Editor-in-Chief,  who has been indispensable since day one, the time of our first issue in the summer of 2023.  We are incredibly fortunate to have the participation of Jack Hughes, a promising young journalist of enormous talent who we expect may prove to be the Keith Olbermann of his generation. This month, we welcome Maxim Shajenko to our team as a contributing correspondent. Maxim has proven himself to be a gifted writer and has been a passionate and tireless advocate for Ukraine since the Russian invasion in February, 2022. 

Photo of Maxim

We also welcome Emmanuel Chizaram as our African correspondent. Emmanuel is a Nigerian from the southeastern state of Enugu. He is a lawyer, recently graduating from law school in 2023, and he was drawn to our publication by his ‘natural passion for humanity’, as he puts it. 

Pictures of Emmanuel, his home state of Enugu and the location of Enugu on a map

Today, in relation to the war in Ukraine, we provide you with our first report from Africa.   

Meanwhile, after the sea change in April stemming from a Hungarian election, May has seen no dramatic changes. In fact, Danish analyst Anders Puck Nielsen reports that Russian gains in Ukraine have ceased. Speculating about what Putin might do next, Nielsen foresees a likely expansion of the war in Europe beyond Ukraine.

In our upcoming piece this summer, we will be exploring the subject of corruption in Eastern European politics, especially in Ukraine. Corruption has been an issue plaguing many former Soviet countries. We will be covering the committed and energetic effort within Ukraine to root out corruption, as well as the motivations for doing so. Such as creating a more effective war effort and productive society, as well as meeting standards for integration into the European Union. On the other side, we will also be analyzing how corruption in Russia has led to incompetence and failures in their war. 

REPORT FROM AFRICA, AN AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE REGARDING THE WAR IN UKRAINE:

The war in Ukraine is perceived in vastly different ways depending on where you are in the world. To Ukrainians, it is a battle for sovereignty, a fierce struggle against Kremlin aggression. To Russia, it is a necessary campaign to protect its territory from NATO’s expansion. To Europe, it is an existential necessity to back Ukraine, hence the massive influx of weapons and funding. But for us Africans? The war simply meant “hunger.” For every missile fired far away in Ukraine, a family went to bed hungry here in Africa.

The Ripple Effect: How a European War Starved Africa

When two of Africa’s biggest grain suppliers locked horns on February 24, Africa woke up to an

economic nightmare. We quickly learned just how dependent we were on the Black Sea region:

Egypt: Typically importing 80% of its wheat from Russia and Ukraine, Egypt found itself suddenly cut off. The resulting price spikes severely strained national reserves and pushed bread prices out of reach for ordinary citizens.

Niger Republic: By March 2023, the price of cooking oil skyrocketed from 700 to 1,050 CFA francs per liter.

East Africa: Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya relied heavily on Ukrainian wheat. The World Food Programme (WFP) repeatedly flagged these regions as high-risk zones for severe hunger spikes.

The statistics from this period are devastating. In 2022, the WFP estimated that 44 million people across 38 African countries were on the edge of famine. Sub-Saharan Africa faced the highest projected death toll and malnutrition, accounting for an extra 307 million people affected by the food crisis per year. Furthermore, fertilizer prices doubled in 2022. This forced farmers to cut back on planting in Nigeria, Kenya, and Zambia, which directly led to drastically smaller harvests in 2023. The irony of the situation reached a heartbreaking peak on February 8, 2024. Nigeria, struggling to feed its population of over 200 million amidst massive hunger, received 25,000 metric tons of wheat as a donation from Ukraine. Think about that: a nation torn apart by war, jointly working with the UN, had to send grains to Nigeria because 1.3 million people in our North East region were completely vulnerable.

Geopolitics vs. Survival: The African Union’s Response

While the West viewed the conflict through a geopolitical lens, African leaders had to balance diplomacy with survival. The African Union’s (AU) official stance became one of strict neutrality, coupled with a call for an immediate ceasefire and talks.

February 24, 2022: AU Chair Macky Sall and AU Commission Chair Moussa Faki Mahamat expressed “extreme concern.”They called on Russia to respect international law, territorial integrity, and Ukrainian sovereignty, urging immediate political negotiations.

The 2023 Peace Mission: In June 2023, the presidents of South Africa, Senegal, Comoros, and Zambia traveled to Kyiv and St. Petersburg. They presented a 10-point peace plan focusing on sovereignty, the release of prisoners of war, and reopening the Black Sea grain trade. President Zelenskyy rejected the proposal, insisting on a full Russian withdrawal first. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa maintained: “This war has to have an end… through negotiations and diplomatic means.”

Why Many African Countries Abstained from UN Votes:

When it came to UN resolutions condemning Russia, a significant number of African nations chose to abstain. This wasn’t due to any lack of care; it was a calculated decision driven by four main factors:

1. Non-Alignment: Rooted in the Cold War era, many African states avoid taking sides in great power conflicts to keep communication channels open with both Russia and the West.

2. Historical Ties: Nations like Algeria, Angola, Ethiopia, Mali, and Zimbabwe share long-standing military, educational, and trade relationships with Moscow dating back to the Soviet Union.

3. Domestic Priorities: With immediate threats of food, fertilizer, and fuel shortages, leaders prioritized avoiding a total rift with Russia that could permanently cut off essential supplies.

4. Skepticism of Western Framing: Many viewed this as a localized European conflict and resisted being forced into a “democracy vs. authoritarianism” narrative. They preferred to focus on the devastating global economic consequences.

The Ultimate Sacrifice: Africans on the Frontline for Pay

As the economic distress deepened at home, thousands of young Africans began making painful, desperate decisions to survive. Since 2023, thousands of young African men have been recruited into the war, primarily on the Russian side. Many were lured by deceptive online advertisements promising lucrative factory work, construction, or security roles in Russia, offering $2,200 to $2,500 a month alongside fast-tracked citizenship.

Upon arrival, reality set in. Their passports were confiscated, they were forced to sign contracts written entirely in Russian, and they were sent straight to frontline assault units with minimal military training. As one Senegalese recruit later shared: “I was drawn into a fight that was not mine… I was tricked.”

The Scale and the Losses:

Investigative groups like INPACT and All Eyes on Wagner report that at least 1,417 Africans from 35 countries joined Russian forces between 2023 and mid-2025. Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry puts that estimate even higher, at over 1,780 recruits from 36 African nations.

The cost in human lives has been catastrophic:

* As of August 2025, at least 316 African recruits were confirmed dead, though the actual number is likely much higher due to underreporting.

* Cameroon lost 94 out of 335 fighters. Ghana lost 55, and Egypt lost 52.

* As of November 2025, Kenya had over 200 citizens fighting for Russia, with several casualties reported.

The Backlash:

As death toll reports made their way back home, African families started pushing back. In Kenya, grieving families are actively demanding the return of their relatives. President William Ruto engaged with President Zelenskyy to help facilitate the release of any Kenyan citizens currently held in Ukrainian custody.

Crucial Takeaways from the Recruitment Crisis:

* This was never a formal state-sponsored enlistment by African governments. It was entirely orchestrated by private networks and Russian-linked actors preying on economic desperation.

* Casualties were disproportionately high because these untrained recruits were treated as dispensable property in high-risk “meat-grinder” frontline assaults.

* African governments are currently investigating these trafficking networks and trying to repatriate citizens, but countless families are still left in limbo—not knowing if their loved ones are alive, missing, or buried in a foreign grave.

Finally, It is a heartbreaking truth that whenever a war breaks out in far-away Europe, it is often Africans who suffer the most. Beyond the hunger and the loss of life on the battlefield, our future was stolen too. Countless scholarship programs for African youth were abruptly canceled, and thousands of African students who were building their futures in Kyiv had to be evacuated and brought home to nothing. As devastating as all of this sounds on paper, the reality on the ground is a thousand times worse.

Reader Response

Beautifully written.

-Edeh Emmanuel