Kenyans will no longer be able to enlist for Ukrainian conflict

Kenyan Foreign Minister Musalia Mudavadi confirmed that his country's citizens would, going forward, no longer be able to enlist to fight for Russia in Ukraine, speaking with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday.

"I want to make it clear that we have now agreed that Kenyans shall not be enlisted through the Department of Defence, or Ministry of Defence. They'll no longer be eligible for enlisting in the special operations and we want to appreciate that," Mudavadi noted at a press conference following the meeting.

According to the diplomat, the Russian Defence Ministry would also assist in arranging consular services for injured foreign fighters and be providing full support.

"I just wanted to also make clear that we do not want for any reason our partnership with Russia to be defined from the lenses of the special operations agenda only. That is an incident and the relationship between Kenya and Russia is much more broader than that, and therefore, as we resolve the concerns that were being expressed by the Kenyan families in Nairobi, we believe that we have now found common ground, so that there will be no further enlisting in this engagement," Mudavadi added.

In February, Kenyan Deputy Foreign Minister Korir Sing'Oei reported that dozens of Kenyan citizens were participating in combat operations alongside Russian forces.

Moscow launched a military offensive in Ukraine in late February 2022 after recognising the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR), claiming that Kiev had failed to guarantee their special status under the 2014 Minsk Agreements, and urging Ukraine to declare itself officially neutral and give assurances that it would never join NATO.

Kiev denounced the Russian action as an invasion. Volodymyr Zelensky imposed martial law throughout the country, announcing a general mobilisation, while the EU and the US imposed several rounds of sanctions on Moscow.

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