EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas took aim at Russia’s “unethical” efforts to recruit young Africans to fight in Ukraine on false pretences as she unveiled a new defence pact with Ghana on Tuesday (24 March).
Kallas described the war in Ukraine as “an existential threat to Europe” but pointed to the plight of hundreds of Africans who have found themselves serving on the frontline.
A report by the All Eyes on Wagner (AEOW) investigative group, published in February, listed 1,417 fighters from 35 African countries who had joined the Russian army between 2023 and mid-2025, 316 of whom have been killed. Ghana’s West African neighbour Cameroon has suffered the highest losses: 94 of its 335 recruits have been killed during Russia’s war in Ukraine.
There have been repeated reports of Russia recruiting young African men, typically in their 20s, often by offering jobs in factories or the hospitality sector in exchange for visas or Russian citizenship, before sending them swiftly to the front line in Ukraine after they sign contracts with the Russian army.
The “unethical recruitment of African nationals preys on economic hardship. Your citizens should not be lured into a war that is not theirs,” said Kallas at a joint press conference and signing ceremony with Ghanaian officials in Accra on Tuesday (24 March).
Ghana has been part of an EU security and defence initiative in the Gulf of Guinea, on the West African coast since 2023. The mission aims to empower and assist Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo and Benin to “strengthen their security and defence capabilities to respond to security threats and to tackle the spillover of insecurity from the Sahel to the West African coastal states,” says the EU executive.