The Ukrainian Defence Intelligence (UDI) has identified two Nigerian men, Hamzat Kazeem Kolawole and Mbah Stephen Udoka, killed as Russian mercenaries during assaults in Luhansk.

UDI announced their deaths in a statement on Thursday, with photographs revealing their pre-death military poses and one family image.

“In the Luhansk region, military intelligence operatives discovered the bodies of two citizens of the Federal Republic of Nigeria — Hamzat Kazeen Kolawole (03.04.1983) and Mbah Stephen Udoka (07.01.1988),” the statement read.

According to the statement, both men served in the 423rd Guards Motor Rifle Regiment (military unit 91701) of the 4th guards kantemirovskaya tank division of the armed forces of the Russian federation.

UDI said that they signed contracts with the Russian Army in the second half of 2025: Kolawole on August 29 and Udoka on September 28.

“Udoka received no training whatsoever — just five days later, on October 3, he was assigned to the unit and sent to the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine,” the report read.

It added that no training records for Kolawole have been preserved; however, it is highly likely that he also received no military training but his wife and three children remain in Nigeria.

Both Nigerians, the report added, were killed in late November during an attempt to storm Ukrainian positions in the Luhansk region.

“They never engaged in a firefight — the mercenaries were eliminated by a drone strike,” UDI stated, warning foreign citizens against traveling to the Russian federation or taking up any work on the territory of the “aggressor state”.

It further warned that “A trip to Russia is a real risk of being forced into a “suicide” assault unit and, ultimately, rotting in Ukrainian soil.”

This disclosure fits a pattern of Russia deceiving African recruits and this often happens via false job promises with recent reports estimating that thousands have been tricked into frontline combat, facing high casualties due to minimal training. (The Guardian, excluding headline)

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