CLICK BAIT: ‘We were fodder’ — how a Botswana architect was duped into fighting for Russia

Andrew* is a trained architect from Botswana. While browsing the internet in October 2025, he encountered a pop-up advertisement offering well-paying work in Canada, the US, Poland and elsewhere in Europe.

He clicked the advertisement, not knowing he had taken the first step on a journey to hell and back.

Andrew ended up on the front line of the world’s most intense conventional war in eastern Ukraine in a Russian military uniform. When we visited a Ukrainian prisoner-of-war facility outside Lviv as part of a study group in September, Andrew was among those keen to tell his story.

After clicking the advertisement and stating that he was interested in a driving job on offer in Poland, things moved quickly. He received an instant reply: “When are you ready to travel?”

He was taken aback at the speed of the response, and something told him to be cautious and put the move on hold. But the agent, who called himself Rob, kept contacting him, and he eventually accepted the offer.

It was an offer of the kind of money he could never earn at home – a $20,000 payment to allow him to find accommodation and settle in, and a monthly salary of $3,000, all supposedly under the auspices of the Polish government, which would also offer citizenship after six months.

He was sent an air ticket on Qatar Airways to Doha with the promise of the ticket for the next leg being issued later. When he arrived in Doha, he was asked to take a photograph to prove he had arrived and then told that, due to safety concerns caused by the war between the US and Iran, he would have to transit through Moscow. He was sent the ticket and boarded the flight to Moscow.

When he arrived in Moscow, all attempts to contact “Rob” failed. Instead, he was met by a stranger who spoke no English. The stranger showed him the photograph he had taken in Qatar, and he eventually established that he would have to move to another airport to catch his flight to Poland.

He was given forms in Russian that included the photo he had taken in Qatar and asked to sign them to legalise his stay in Russia while awaiting his flight to Poland.

But instead of flying to Poland, he was taken in the opposite direction, southeast to a place he eventually established was the Russian republic of Bashkortostan.

There he was shown to a stark boarding area with bunk beds where he joined foreign nationals from Colombia, Bangladesh and Cambodia, all apparently victims of a similar scam. At the mercy of their taciturn hosts who spoke none of their languages, the dream of employment in Europe vanished as they were herded onto vehicles and driven towards the front line.

“A guy came and said we were going to Rostov, closer to the Ukraine border.” They arrived by bus in Rostov at night and were then taken to a military truck, which travelled until the early morning. On the journey, they began to see dugouts and bunkers.

Military training

They arrived at a camp where they were issued with military trousers, jackets and T-shirts. Three days of training began. On the first day, they were trained to handle the AK-74 – a modern version of the AK-47. On the second, they were taught to avoid and hide from drones, and on the third, they were given more training on drones.

“After the third day, we were taken to war, into Ukraine.”

They were split up into groups of two with a Russian soldier to show them the way as they moved towards the front. A Russian drone flew overhead, watching their progress.

Their role was, in essence, to act as human enemy detectors with instructions to walk towards Ukrainian positions until they encountered resistance. “We were pathfinders to establish safe routes for more useful forces.”

The realisation that he was expendable dawned. “They just need a body, which is going to wear a uniform and open the way for their soldiers to make it look like they are still fighting.”

When the man walking behind him faltered because of a bad leg, he heard a gunshot ring out as he was executed.

After making his way through a hellish landscape of rotting corpses with drones buzzing in the distance, he eventually encountered Ukrainian troops and surrendered.

“There are dead bodies there. Black bodies. You ask yourself, where does it come from?

“Russia is actually making you fodder. You are just worms. You are not the fish. They are actually killing people. From my country, I heard that I was the 18th guy to come. But I’m the only person who survived this. Everyone disappeared.”

His advice? “Don’t even think about going to Russia.” DM

*Name changed to protect privacy.

Terry Lester is the dean of St George’s Cathedral, Cape Town. Ray Hartley and Greg Mills are custodians of the Platform for African Democrats. The authors visited Ukraine as part of a study tour in September 2026.