At least 55 Ghanaian citizens have been killed in fighting in Ukraine, Ghana’s Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said Friday, February 27. He vowed to combat Russia’s illegal recruitment of Africans.
Ablakwa visited Kyiv this week to discuss the fate of two Ghanaian citizens captured by Ukrainian forces. During the trip, Ukrainian authorities, citing their own intelligence, shared data on Africans recruited by Russia to fight. “They documented 1,780 Africans from 36 countries who were lured by criminal human-trafficking networks to take part in the war against Ukraine,” the minister said on Facebook.
He said the situation involving Ghanaians is especially troubling. Since 2022, an estimated 272 people from Ghana have ended up on the front lines. According to current assessments, 55 have been killed and two are being held as prisoners of war.
“As a responsible government, we cannot turn a blind eye to this painful tally. These are not just numbers-they represent human lives, the hopes of many Ghanaian families and of our nation. That is why the government is determined to raise awareness and intensify outreach to protect our youth,” he said.
He added that President John Dramani Mahama’s administration is prepared to track and dismantle illicit recruitment schemes. /ru/jemencev-obmanom-verbuut-v-armiu-rf-dla-vojny-v-ukraine/a-70977245 “This is not our war, and we cannot allow our youth to become a human shield for others,” Ablakwa stressed.
At a joint news conference with his Ukrainian counterpart Andriy Sybiha in Kyiv on February 25, he said Ghanaians are being recruited via the “darknet,” making it impossible for the government to confirm the exact number of citizens drawn into the war. /
