The Canada Brief

World · 1 d ago

Vladimir Putin and John Dramani Mahama at the third Russia-Africa summit

Russian Presidential Executive Office · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Ghana says Putin agreed not to recruit Ghanaians for the war in Ukraine

The Kremlin, Moscow

Third Russia-Africa summit

Ghana's foreign minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, said Vladimir Putin made the pledge when he met President John Dramani Mahama in the Kremlin on Oct 30, at the third Russia-Africa summit.

“This ban covers all circumstances of participation, both through illegal recruitment and on one's own initiative,” Ablakwa wrote on Facebook.

— Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Ghana's foreign minister

Foreigners recruited by Russia, per Ukraine

28,000 foreigners

Russia has recruited more than 28,000 foreigners from 135 countries, and more than 5,000 of them have died in the war, according to Ukraine's government.

Background

A UN commission of inquiry has accused Russia of human trafficking for luring foreign fighters to the front, and Kenya has asked Kyiv to treat its captured citizens as trafficking victims.