S.Africa deaths, Kenya court case show citizens drawn into Ukraine war

JOHANNESBURG/NAIROBI, Feb 26 (Reuters) - South Africa and Kenya faced more signs on Thursday of citizens being drawn into the war in Ukraine, as Pretoria reported two South Africans killed on the front lines and a Nairobi court charged a man with trafficking 25 Kenyans to fight for Russia.

South Africa's government said that two of its citizens had died on the front lines of the conflict.

The two are separate from a group of 17 South Africans who were tricked into fighting for Russia in Ukraine and who have mostly been repatriated, South Africa's foreign affairs ministry said in a statement.

It did not say when or how the two people died.

Russian authorities have denied illegally recruiting African citizens to fight in Ukraine.

"The government continues to investigate the networks involved in these recruitment efforts to ensure that those who exploit vulnerable citizens face the full might of the law," South Africa's foreign ministry said.

In Nairobi, a court charged Festus Arasa Omwamba, director of a recruiting company, of trafficking the victims to "Russia for the purpose of exploitation by means of deception", the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions said.

It said in a statement that 22 out of the 25 people were rescued from an apartment complex in Athi River, a town in Machakos County near the capital last September before they travelled to Russia.

Three others who had already gone to Russia allegedly found themselves at the frontline of the Russia-Ukraine war, and they later came back with injuries, the prosecutor's office said, adding that Omwamba had pleaded not guilty to the charges.

More than 1,700 Africans are fighting for Russia in its Ukraine war, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on Wednesday, adding that Moscow was using deception to trick them into fighting.

Kenya's National Intelligence Service said in a report last week that recruitment agencies colluded with rogue Kenyan airport staff, immigration and other state officials, and with staff at the Russian Embassy in Nairobi and at the Kenyan Embassy in Moscow, to facilitate the recruits' travel to fight, putting the number of Kenyans recruited at more than 1,000.

Russia's embassy in Nairobi denied that Moscow was involved in illegally recruiting Kenyans to fight in Ukraine, though it said foreign citizens could voluntarily join its armed forces.

The court ordered Omwamba to stay in police custody pending a bail hearing, the prosecutor's office said.

Kenya's foreign ministry has said 27 Kenyans had been rescued after being stranded in Russia. Kenya's Foreign Minister Musalia Mudavadi has said he plans to visit Russia in March for talks on the issue.

(Reporting by Emma Ogao, Humphrey Malalo and Nellie Peyton, Writing by George Obulutsa/Alexander Winning, Editing by William Maclean)