‘Send the Chocolate One Ahead’: Russian Commander Orders African Recruit Into ‘Kill Zone’

Russian troops are using African recruits as human shields while moving through a battlefield “kill zone,” Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR) said, citing an intercepted conversation. The agency attributed the exchange to personnel from Russia’s 39th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade. In the recording, a commander instructs a soldier to send an African recruit ahead of him while following a path.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. “Keep walking along the path, along the path: walk calmly, listen to the sky, let the ‘chocolate one’ go ahead of you. Let him walk about 20 meters [66 feet] ahead,” the commander says in Russian, using a racist term to refer to the recruit. The reference to listening to the sky appears to concern aerial threats. HUR described the exchange as evidence that Russian forces treat foreign recruits as expendable, exposing them to danger ahead of other personnel. Last April, during another call, a voice in Russian instructs a subordinate to prepare for the arrival of foreign personnel. “Silva, you’re the one I need. Look, tomorrow they’ll bring in foreign specialists to you – they’re ready to carry out tasks, but they don’t really want to do it. Will you be able to force them to go?” The response suggests that coercion is expected and normalized. “Well, how, of course we can, damn it. If they signed a contract, of course. I’ll tell them what, I don’t know, beat them, I don’t know. We’ll… I don’t even understand how exactly.” Other Topics of Interest Ukraine Faces Another Year of Patriot Missile Shortages as European Stocks Run Low – Bloomberg Ukraine faces another year of Patriot missile shortages as European stocks dwindle and a newly approved $2.1 billion US sale offers no immediate solution. In a separate part of the conversation, the speaker appears to outline methods of enforcing compliance. “You can beat the sh*t out of them, just not the legs – we need the legs. But yeah, you can. We’ll have to force them to go, otherwise we’ll have to go ourselves. And there’s no real desire for that, f**k, so we’ll still have to make them.” In September, Ukraine’s “I Want to Live” project, which helps Russian soldiers surrender, reported that Russian POWs in Ukraine include citizens of 55 countries, the project said. Nearly 29,000 foreign nationals have signed contracts with Russia’s armed forces since 2022, according to Ukrainian data. The figures point to the growing international outreach of Russia’s military recruitment campaign, which Ukraine says increasingly targets economically vulnerable people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Ukraine says Russia’s recruitment campaign often begins far from the battlefield, with promises of well-paid work, Russian citizenship or opportunities to study. By August, Ukraine’s foreign ministry said it had identified at least 2,982 recruits from 37 African countries serving in Russia’s armed forces, including 486 confirmed dead. Ukraine also held 35 African citizens from 17 countries as POWs. The largest contingents came from Kenya, Egypt, Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Algeria and Mali. The number has grown rapidly. Ukrainian officials identified around 1,400 recruits from 36 countries in November 2025, more than 1,700 by February 2026 and almost 3,000 by August. What foreign POWs told Kyiv Post Kyiv Post has also interviewed foreign nationals captured after joining Russia’s military. In September 2025, Kyiv Post gained exclusive access to one of Ukraine’s largest POW camps and spoke with two foreign fighters, one from Ghana and another from Egypt. Joshua, from Ghana, said he had been studying in Moscow and was struggling financially when he signed a contract with Russia’s defense ministry. Mohammed Salah, from Egypt, said visa problems had pushed him to join the Russian army in exchange for citizenship. A similar pattern emerged in a 2024 Kyiv Post interview with a Somali national identified as Bashiir. Bashiir said he had traveled to Russia looking for work after earning about $100 a month in Somalia. He told Kyiv Post he saw advertisements for the Russian armed forces and believed he would be trained to work as a security guard inside Russia. “No shooting, no killing, no other things,” he said. Bashiir said he did not realize he had been taken across the border into Ukraine until he was already there. Ukrainian authorities told Kyiv Post at the time that his account resembled explanations frequently given by captured Russian personnel, who often claim they were drivers, cooks, rear-guard troops or ammunition carriers rather than combatants. Petro Yatsenko, a representative of Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, told Kyiv Post that captured soldiers routinely say they did not participate in fighting. The recruitment campaign has already prompted governments in Africa and elsewhere to intervene on behalf of their citizens. South Africa has repatriated citizens recruited into Russia’s military, while Kenya has sought assurances from Moscow that its nationals would no longer be recruited. Ghana has also pressed Russia over the recruitment and deaths of its citizens. In 2023, Kyiv Post interviewed a woman working as a “professional eavesdropper,” listening in on Russian communications intercepted by Ukrainian intelligence. “Maria” – not her real name – said that the “insane” things heard in intercepted calls are, in fact, real, despite their often outrageous nature. “They all are real even though they might seem insane. Sometimes I can’t believe the words I’m hearing myself, but we have what we have,” she said. Kyiv Post regularly reports on intercepted Russian communications. Some of the most shocking examples include claims of cannibalism, Russian soldiers driving tanks into the countryside in search of vodka, and the chaotic aftermath of the Russian military’s loss of Starlink access.