Skip next section South Africa receives ‘distress calls’ from men trapped in Donbas
11/06/2025November 6, 2025
South Africa receives ‘distress calls’ from men trapped in Donbas
Seventeen South African nationals believed to be fighting with mercenary groups in the Donbas region in eastern have sent pleas to the government in Pretoria to help bring them home, the South African presidency said Thursday.
In a statement, the presidency said it had “received distress calls for assistance to return home from seventeen (17) South African men, between the ages of 20-39 years, who are trapped in the war-torn Donbas.”
The men were “lured to join mercenary forces involved in the Ukraine-Russia war under the pretext of lucrative employment contracts,” the statement said.
It is not clear whether the men were fighting for Russia or Ukraine. .
President Cyril Ramaphosa has ordered an inquiry into how the men were recruited.
It is illegal for South African citizens to fight for foreign armies without government authorization.
The government issued a warning in August to young people over fake job offers on social media to go to Russia, amid reports that women had been lured there to produce drones.
In March 2024, Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed at least 14 South African mercenaries had been killed fighting in Ukraine since the start of the conflict in February 2022.
https://p.dw.com/p/53B4s
Skip next section Welcome to our coverage11/06/2025November 6, 2025
Welcome to our coverage
The South African government said Thursday that it has received what it said were “distress calls” from 17 men who are fighting with mercenary forces in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region.
It is not clear which side the South Africans were recruited to fight for.
Meanwhile, energy ministers from the European Union are meeting with their US counterpart and leading American LNG company executives in Greece to discuss ways to provide war-torn Ukraine with gas supplies.
during its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began over three and a half years ago.
. Kyiv struck an oil refinery in Russia’s southern Volgograd city overnight, killing at least one person, Russian officials said.
Stay tuned as DW brings you the latest on those developments and other major news from the war in Ukraine.
https://p.dw.com/p/53B0p
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