At least four Nigerians recruited to fight for Russia in Ukraine have been killed on the battlefield in Ukraine, according to sources familiar with the matter.
DAILY NIGERIAN exclusively gathered that the slain Nigerians — Adam Anas, Akinlawon Tunde Quyuum, Abugu Stanley Onyeka and Balogun Ridwan Adisa — were recruited on the false pretense of “security job” but ended up being conscripted and deployed to the war front after three weeks of training.
While the quartet of Messrs Anas, Quyuum Onyeka as well as Abubakar Adamu (the only survivor) traveled together in November 2025, Mr Adisa was recruited earlier in the year.
Sources said the Nigerian fighters died in the frontline on different dates between December 2025 and January 2026.
Investigations by this newspaper shows that the Russian military did not contact the families of the fallen fighters, just as they warned other African mercenaries against reporting the incidents to the families of the deceased fighters.
DAILY NIGERIAN gathered that the news of death of the four Nigerians was first broken in a secret WhatsApp group opened by the African mercenaries.
“We heard about the death of our brother through one of his colleagues. His picture was posted in a secret WhatsApp group. Our family was never contacted by the Russian authorities,” said a relative of a deceased conscript, Adam Anas.
The travails Mr Adam and his co-travelers began after an informal acceptance of the “security job offer” by a Nigerian agent identified as Emiola Muhammad.
The Russian Embassy in Abuja, in an apparent connivance with the Nigerian recruiting agent, granted the Nigerian mercenaries a single-entry tourist visa without biometric capture and fulfilling other application requirements.
Although the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Nigeria has drawn the attention of applicants that submission must be made in person and that “reliance on a third party may incur a visa denial”, yet the conscripts were granted visas without submission in person.
The mercenaries were promised a tempting monthly salary of 200,000 ruble (about 3.6million naira) as well as allowances and other perks.
DAILY NIGERIAN gathered that on arrival at the Sheremetyevo International Airport, Moscow, the four Nigerian job-seekers were immediately diverted away from border control queues to another passage, exempting them from immigration clearance.
In a letter obtained by DAILY NIGERIAN, the Russian military subtly directed the airport authorities to give them entry clearance for contract enlistment into the Russian Army.
In the letter, which was addressed to the Chief of the Border Control Detachment of the Federal Security Service of Russia at Sheremetyevo International Airport, Colonel L. Yu. Yashin, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation said Nigerian foreign citizens are scheduled to arrive at the recruitment center for contract military service (2nd category) in Yaroslavl (31 Dobrynina Street, Yaroslavl) this November to sign a military service contract.
Immediately after arrival, the Nigerian job-seekers were therefore asked to sign the contract written in Russian without English translation.
Part of the contract is translated as follows, “during the period of military service under the contract, [you are required] to conscientiously perform all general, official, and special duties of military personnel established by legislative and other regulatory legal acts of the Russian Federation.
“To be faithful to the Military Oath (obligation), to selflessly serve the people of the Russian Federation, to courageously and skillfully defend the Russian Federation (paragraph three of Article 16 of the Internal Service Regulations of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, approved by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of November 10, 2007 No. 1495 (hereinafter referred to as the Internal Service Regulations).”
After signing the contract without translation, they were taken to a military facility where they underwent training for three weeks.
“Our passports and phones were seized immediately, but some of us managed to sneak in a phone. After spending hours at a camp in Moscow, they waited till night time before driving us on a five-hour road trip to the military camp,” said one of the African conscripts.