The South African presidency announced on Thursday that it has received pleas for assistance from 17 citizens currently stranded in Ukraine’s war-torn Donbas region.
According to the statement, the men—aged between 20 and 39—had joined foreign military groups operating in the area, reportedly after being promised lucrative employment contracts. It remains unclear for which side they had been fighting.
The government has “received distress calls for assistance to return home from seventeen South African men between the ages of 20–39 years, who are trapped in the war-torn Donbas,” the presidency said. The statement added that President Cyril Ramaphosa has ordered an investigation into the recruitment of South African nationals as mercenaries.
Under South African law, it is illegal for citizens to serve in a foreign army without prior authorization from the government.
Donbas, a heavily industrialized region in eastern Ukraine bordering Russia, remains one of the main battlegrounds in the ongoing war.
Reports from Moscow’s defence ministry previously claimed that at least 14 South African mercenaries had been killed in the fighting, though this information could not be verified.
