Russia targeted South African video gamers as part of a recruitment drive for its war in Ukraine, according to documents involving two men who left to fight.
The men in their 20s left South Africa in July last year after talking about joining the Russian military to a gamer over an app called Discord, based on email exchanges with diplomats by a friend seeking information on their whereabouts and well-being.
The South Africans regularly used Discord while playing the military game Arma 3, a person familiar with how they were recruited said, asking not to be identified. Within weeks of signing a military contract near St. Petersburg, a medical certificate showed one of them was killed fighting in Ukraine, according to the person.