Equatorial Guinea student says Russian recruiters sent him into Ukraine war

Daniel Angel Masie Nchama, a 22-year-old former IT student from Equatorial Guinea, has returned home after what he described as a recruitment trap that sent him from Russia to the front line in Ukraine.

Nchama told AFP at his parents’ home in Malabo that he left for Russia in December 2025 after a Cameroonian man he knew as “Fabrice” persuaded him to go. He said he believed he would receive military training and later work as a bodyguard.

On arrival, Nchama said he and other recruits were asked to sign documents in Russian, which they did not understand. He said a Russian soldier placed a weapon on the table when he tried to translate the papers on his phone. Their passports were then confiscated, he said.

Nchama said he received two weeks of basic training, followed by another 45 days of training after being transferred to Ukraine. He said his group included Africans from several countries and Colombians.

“I realised we were on the front lines when a missile struck our vehicle and killed two of my comrades,” he told AFP.

Nchama said he was first assigned to a battalion in Donetsk and later to another unit in Volnovakha. He described cold, hunger and fear, and said disobedience could be punished with death.

After he contacted his parents in March, his case drew attention in Equatorial Guinea. The government said it would take diplomatic steps to secure his release.

Nchama said he later escaped after returning to Murmansk in the Russian Arctic, where military leaders had decorated him and offered him prospects in the Russian army. He said he lied to superiors about visiting a friend, and Equatorial Guinea’s ambassador found him at the airport and took him in.

Ukraine estimates that nearly 1,800 Africans have been enlisted in Russian forces. The collective All Eyes on Wagner published names of 1,417 Africans it said Moscow recruited between January 2023 and September 2025 to fight in Ukraine, more than 300 of whom it said had died.