Kyiv on Tuesday accused Moscow of sending African prisoners held in Russia to the front lines in Ukraine after a Zambian student was killed in action while serving in a prison near Moscow.
“Putin is sending African citizens detained in Russia to war in Ukraine,” Ukrainian diplomatic spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said on Twitter.
Zambia announced on Monday that one of its citizens, Lemekhani Nathan Nyirenda, “died in Ukraine on September 22, 2022”, allegedly held captive in Russia.
Zambia said it had asked Russia for clarification on “the circumstances under which a Zambian citizen serving a prison sentence in Moscow died when he was drafted to fight in Ukraine.”
Russian diplomacy said on Tuesday it was “examining” the “conditions” of the 23-year-old student’s death.
Ukraine accuses Evgueni Prigozhin, head of the Wagner paramilitary group, considered close to Vladimir Putin, of sending thousands of fighters taken directly from Russian prisons to the front in exchange for promises of reduced wages and penalties.
source: Noticias
