Russia has said that it did not hire Nigerians to fight in its conflict against Ukraine.
In February 2022, Russia fully invaded Ukraine and took over more of the country. This started the current phase of the war, which is now the greatest battle in Europe since World War II.
DAILY NIGERIAN said last week that four Nigerians—Adam Anas, Akinlawon Tunde Quyuum, Abugu Stanley Onyeka, and Balogun Ridwan Adisa—were slain on the front lines.
People reported that the dead were recruited under false pretenses for a “security job,” but after three weeks of training, they were sent to the front lines of the battle.
The Russian administration has recently said that they did not provide Nigerians visas so they could fight for Russia in Ukraine.
The publication said that its sources said that the Nigerian fighters died on the battle lines on different days between December 2025 and January 2026.
It said that the African mercenaries were the first to disseminate the news of the deaths of the four Nigerians in a private WhatsApp group.
The report said that the Russian Embassy in Abuja gave the Nigerian mercenaries a tourist visa that only allowed them to enter the country once, without taking their fingerprints or meeting other application requirements. It also said that the mercenaries were promised a monthly salary of 200,000 rubles (about 3.6 million naira) as well as allowances and other benefits.
But when they got to Russia, they say they were forced into the military and sent to the front lines with minimal training.
It is said that they were forced to sign military service contracts in Russian without lawyers or translations.
Some people said that their passports were taken away, making it impossible for them to leave.
Russia, on the other hand, says that there is no government-backed scheme to recruit Nigerians to participate in the war in Ukraine and that any such activity, if it exists, is not tied to the Russian state.
According to Daily Trust, Andrey Podyolyshev, the Russian Ambassador to Nigeria, said this in Abuja yesterday in response to rumors that Nigerians had been recruited to fight on the front lines.
“There is no government program to get Nigerians to fight in Ukraine.” This has nothing to do with the Russian government if there are illegal groups or people seeking to recruit Nigerians in illegal ways.
He said, “If anyone has this information, we are ready to send it to Russian law enforcement so they can look into these cases.”
Podyolyshev also responded to accusations from Western media that some Nigerians were tricked into joining the fight.
“You are getting information from sources in the West. Their main job is to make Russia look bad. “The Ambassador added, “If you want to know the truth, you should send journalists to Russia to see what is actually going on.”
He said that some Nigerians may be in the combat zone, but he insisted that there was no official Russian policy behind it.
“I know there are Nigerians like that, but the government doesn’t have a program to hire them.” He said, “If there are agencies, including Russian ones, breaking Russian law, we are ready to pass this information on to our law enforcement agencies.”
The envoy also said that the two nations should work together more on economic issues. He pointed out that the last meeting of the Russia–Nigeria Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation was roughly ten years ago.
Podyolyshev also talked about Nigeria’s involvement in ECOWAS and the African Union, bringing up its work as a peacekeeper in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and The Gambia.
“Nigeria was willing to take charge of keeping the region stable. He remarked, “Nigeria is the heart of ECOWAS in terms of population, economy, and military power.”
He said that both countries were working on long-term projects in the energy industry, such as nuclear cooperation.
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