‘They’ll be singing a different tune’: Laughing Russian officer brands African recruits ‘disposable’ as they head for the frontline
A disturbing video shows African foreign nationals fighting for Russia in Ukraine being mocked and described as “disposable” by their commanders, fuelling accusations that Moscow is using vulnerable migrants as cannon fodder to plug battlefield losses.
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The footage, which began circulating on social media this week, shows a group of African recruits dressed in Russian EMR (Digital Flora) camouflage, singing and dancing in a snowy forest clearing. While the men appear to be boosting their own morale, the audio from the laughing Russian officer filming them tells a darker story.
"Oh, look how many disposables there are," the cameraman is heard saying in Russian. As the recruits continue to chant a rhythmic song, the Swahili phrase "Nawaka moto" (The fire is burning).
The officer adds dismissively: "They're even singing, so joyful. It's okay, they'll go to 'the bay' [the frontline] now, and they'll be singing a different tune."
The video is the latest in a growing body of evidence suggesting foreign nationals, particularly from Africa, are being deceived or coerced into fighting for Russia in its war against Ukraine.
LBC has previously reported multiple accounts of African men recruited through false job offers, online gaming platforms and so-called honeytrap operations on Telegram. Many say they only discovered they had been enlisted as soldiers after arriving in Russia or reaching the battlefield.
One such case is that of Bankoli Machi, a 36-year-old auto mechanic from Nigeria, who was captured by Ukrainian forces. Speaking after his detention, Mr Machi said he believed he had accepted a construction job in Russia, with promised pay of around 500,000 naira.
“I came to Russia to work,” he said. “I did not know that I was coming to join soldier.”
He said the paperwork he was given was written entirely in Russian and that he relied on intermediaries to tell him where to sign.
Read more: Russia using Africans as cannon fodder - as video emerges of solider with landmine strapped to chest
Russia has been repeatedly accused of using foreign recruits in particularly dangerous roles. Separate video footage circulating online appears to show an African man with a landmine strapped to his chest, being taunted by a Russian soldier.
The explosive device is believed to be a TM-62, a powerful anti-tank mine. In the footage, the Russian soldier uses a racial slur and refers to the man as a “can opener”, a term reportedly used to describe sending recruits towards Ukrainian positions with explosives, detonating them to breach bunkers.
At one point, the Russian soldier can be heard saying the man is “about to run” and will be “hopping through the woods”.
Ukrainian officials and diplomats have repeatedly warned that Moscow is targeting migrants and foreign nationals as it struggles to sustain manpower. Ukraine’s ambassador to South Africa has claimed that thousands of Africans are being unwittingly sent to the frontlines under false pretences or with promises of high salaries.
Michael McManus, Director of Research at the Henry Jackson Society, wrote for LBC Opinion that even by the standards of Vladimir Putin’s Russia, the images are shocking.
He said Russia has suffered more than one million casualties since the 2022 invasion and has turned to some of the world’s poorest people to replace its losses.
“The sight of Africans shivering in the snows of Eastern Europe is eye-catching,” he wrote. “The path from their homelands to the trenches is a tortuous one.”
According to Mr McManus, some recruits were travelling towards Europe as asylum seekers before being intercepted in Russia. Others were lured by job offers, while some were recruited through online gaming, where Russian operatives posed as fellow players and befriended potential targets.
The Henry Jackson Society has previously warned that Russia uses migration as a strategic tool during periods of military pressure or sanctions, a tactic it has described as “malicious migration”.
“Russia once used migrants as a figurative weapon,” Mr McManus wrote. “Now Russia is giving the migrants weapons in its army. And in the case of suicide bombers, the migrants themselves are literal weapons.”
Accounts from prisoners of war also describe brutal conditions for foreign recruits. One Indian national captured by Ukraine said he had been studying in Russia when he was falsely accused of a crime, then offered the chance to avoid prosecution by joining the army. He described receiving just 30 seconds of training on how to pull a grenade pin.
Complaints about cold, hunger or being sent in human-wave attacks were allegedly met with threats of execution.
As Russia’s war, ordered by Vladimir Putin, enters its fourth year, critics say the growing reliance on foreign nationals underlines the scale of Moscow’s losses and the human cost of sustaining the conflict.
Mr McManus concluded that the young African and Asian men being sent to fight are “more than a statistic”, adding that “each and every one of them who dies is a tragedy”.