Bloomberg: Russia recruited gamers from South Africa to participate in the war against Ukraine

Russia recruited South African gamers through the Discord platform to recruit them for the war against Ukraine, Bloomberg reported on January 7.

The agency is aware of two men from the Republic of South Africa (South Africa) aged 20 who went to war in July 2024. Both of them were fans of the computer game Arma 3 and regularly used Discord to communicate, writes Bloomberg with reference to a source familiar with the recruitment process.

After speaking with an unidentified recruiter who identified himself on Discord as Dash, the South Africans met each other in Cape Town and then visited the Russian consulate, according to correspondence obtained by Bloomberg. They left for Russia via the UAE on July 29. They met with Dash in Russia and in early September signed contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense for a period of one year. They were told that they could potentially obtain Russian citizenship and continue their education if they served in the army.

According to the source, after several weeks of basic training, one of the South Africans was sent to the front in Ukraine, where he served as an assistant grenade launcher. He last contacted his family on October 6. On December 17, 2024, his friend informed the family that the man had died in battle. The whereabouts of the second recruited South African citizen are unknown.

According to the medical certificate dated January 10, 2025, received by the family, the man died on October 23 in the Luhansk region.

In November 2025, Bloomberg wrote that the daughter of the former president of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, Duduzil Zuma-Sambudla, was recruiting men from South Africa and Botswana to participate in the war against Ukraine. According to the agency, South African parliament member Duduzila Zuma recruited about 20 young men who went to Russia in July 2025. She convinced the men that they would go to bodyguard training courses to work for her father’s party in the future.

At the beginning of November, the South African authorities began an investigation into the recruitment of residents of the country into the Russian army to participate in the war against Ukraine. The office of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said that 17 South Africans who are in Ukraine have applied for help. According to local media, Jacob Zuma wrote a letter to Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov on November 11 with a request to withdraw 18 misled South Africans from the front.