{"id":132016,"date":"2026-02-24T19:02:47","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T19:02:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/ramaphosa-thanks-putin-for-release-of-south-africans-lured-into-russia-ukraine-war-2\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T19:02:47","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T19:02:47","slug":"ramaphosa-thanks-putin-for-release-of-south-africans-lured-into-russia-ukraine-war-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/ramaphosa-thanks-putin-for-release-of-south-africans-lured-into-russia-ukraine-war-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Ramaphosa thanks Putin for release of South Africans lured into Russia-Ukraine war"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Africa\u2019s President Cyril Ramaphosa has thanked his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for helping to secure the return of 17 South Africans allegedly tricked into joining the Russia-Ukraine war.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last November, the South African government said it had received distress calls from the group of men who had joined mercenary forces in the conflict.<\/p>\n

The men believed they were going to Russia for bodyguard training but instead ended up on the front line of the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Ramaphosa\u2019s office confirmed that four of them had returned last Friday, 11 others would be \u201con their way home soon\u201d and another two at a later stage. An investigation into their recruitment was ongoing, it added.<\/p>\n

Working as a mercenary or fighting on behalf of another government is illegal in South Africa, unless the government authorises it.<\/p>\n

Relatives of the men told the BBC that when they had arrived in Russia, they were given contracts to sign but as they were written in Russian they did not understand it was to fight as mercenaries against Ukrainian forces.<\/p>\n

Ramaphosa said the South African government, working closely with Russian officials, had secured the men\u2019s return home \u2013 with most expected back soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo remain in Russia with one in a hospital in Moscow, while the other one is being processed before finalising his travel arrangements,\u201d his spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said in a statement on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Ramaphosa had spoken to Putin about the situation on 10 February, he explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Ramaphosa has expressed his heartfelt gratitude to President Vladimir Putin who responded positively to his call to support the process of returning the men home,\u201d Magwenya said.<\/p>\n

South Africa\u2019s embassy in Moscow would continue monitoring the lone citizen still in hospital until he was able to travel home, he added.<\/p>\n

The daughter of former South African President Jacob Zuma, Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, has been named as the alleged recruiter in the scheme, an allegation she denies.<\/p>\n

Zuma-Sambudla, who was forced to resign as an MP over the scandal in late November, said in an affidavit that she thought the men \u2013 some of whom are her relatives \u2013 were going to Russia for \u201clawful\u201d training.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would not, under any circumstances, knowingly expose my own family or any other person to harm,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

The former MP filed her statement with police after her half-sister, Nkosazana Zuma-Mncube, accused her of tricking South Africans to join the war and laid a criminal complaint against her in November.<\/p>\n

In a separate case, police arrested five people in December \u2013 including a radio presenter with South Africa\u2019s public broadcaster \u2013\u00a0on a charge related to the alleged recruitment of men for the Russian military.<\/p>\n

The five were released on bail \u2013 and the trial has yet to start.<\/p>\n

The post Ramaphosa thanks Putin for release of South Africans lured into Russia-Ukraine war<\/a> appeared first on KBC Digital<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africa\u2019s President Cyril Ramaphosa has thanked his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for helping to secure the return of 17 South Africans allegedly tricked into joining the Russia-Ukraine war. Last November, the South African government said it had received distress calls from the group of men who had joined mercenary forces in the conflict. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-132016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132016\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}