HARARE – A 36-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly recruiting young Zimbabwean men to fight for the Russian army in its war against Ukraine.
Edward Kachingwe was not asked to plead when he appeared before Harare magistrate Jesse Kufa on Monday facing charges of trafficking in persons and operating an unregistered employment agency.
Kufa declined to entertain his bail application, ruling that he should instead approach the High Court given the gravity of the allegations.
Kachingwe, according to the National Prosecuting Authority, worked with a Russian accomplice identified only as “Roman,” who remains on the run, to recruit Zimbabweans for deployment to the Russian military.
The NPA alleges Kachingwe connived with Roman “and then started to unlawfully recruit victims to join the Russian army where they will be forced to fight in the armed conflict between the Russian Federation and Ukrainian Forces.”
The NPA said investigators had received intelligence that Kachingwe had recruited five young men before moving in to arrest him. He was allegedly intercepted at Harare’s Roadport Bus Terminus on June 27 while escorting one of the recruits to board a bus bound for South Africa, described by prosecutors as the first leg of the journey to Russia.
Detectives allegedly recovered electronic travel tickets, Russian e-visas and hotel booking reservations for the recruits from Kachingwe.
The arrest follows a similar case earlier this month in which Russian national Leonid Koftev appeared in court charged with trafficking after allegedly arranging a Zimbabwean man’s travel to fight in Russia.
In April, the minister of information Zhemu Soda said at least 18 Zimbabweans had been killed fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine, with at least 63 others still in the conflict zone.
Russia has been at war with Ukraine since launching its full-scale invasion in February 2022. The conflict has drawn thousands of foreign fighters, with recruiters increasingly targeting economically vulnerable young men in African countries with promises of lucrative military contracts.
