Zhorin warns of new Russian threat: Why Africa matters

Positions built by Russia on the continent have become a source of manpower for the occupying army. They are actively recruiting fighters there.

Lieutenant Colonel Maksym Zhorin wrote about this in his Telegram channel.

He says that Russia has spent years expanding its influence in Africa, treating “third world” countries as resource bases — not only for natural resources but also for people.

According to Zhorin, many of these recruits have long been “running around their territories with Russian Kalashnikovs and learning to fight.” He argues that it is logical for Russia to now use this prepared resource to bolster its war in Ukraine.

At the same time, Zhorin sharply criticizes Ukraine’s approach to foreign recruitment. “Meanwhile, we are working very poorly on recruitment abroad. If a country with resources like Russia is recruiting people, we should be paying much more attention to this to help Ukrainians in the army,” he wrote.

The officer expressed surprise that society actively discusses labor migrants while ignoring the issue of involving foreigners in Ukraine’s armed forces.

“For some reason there is a lot of talk about labor migrants, but I haven’t heard anything about initiatives to replace our people in the trenches with foreigners,” he concluded.