In search of a better-paying job, Vincent Odhiambo travelled to Russia in July 2025, hoping to work as a shopkeeper and earn up to Ksh515,000 a month.

Instead, he says he was recruited into the Russian military, given about a week of training, and sent to fight in Ukraine, where he watched fellow Kenyan recruits die as he struggled to stay alive.

In May 2025, Vincent, a shopkeeper in Nairobi, was searching for better employment abroad.

After visiting several international job agencies, he and a friend were discouraged when they were asked to pay Ksh30,000 in registration fees.

They soon met a man who promised them jobs in Russia without any registration fees.

“He told us the governments of Kenya and Russia are working together. They will pay for your visa and ticket,” Vincent told Yvonne Okwara in the latest episode of The Conscripts.

On July 13, 2025, Vincent and five other Kenyans boarded a plane to Russia with a promise of a shopkeeping job paying between 240,000 and 320,000 rubles, about Ksh383,000 and Ksh519,000 a month

But upon arriving in Moscow, Vincent says their passports were taken and they were told to open bank accounts.

“We were forced to sign documents in Russian,” he said, adding that the papers included a standing order that he would later discover had left his bank account empty.

When they asked to use the internet to translate the documents, their request was refused.

Instead of taking up shopkeeping jobs, he and the others were transported to a military camp some three hours drive from St Petersburg, where they were informed of their new roles.

“You are soldiers now,” he recalled being told. “I cried,” he said, before recalling gathering strength for what came next.

Here, they were required to sign military contracts, Vincent said he refused to sign the documents and asked to return home, only to be told he would have to pay 3.4 million rubles, or about Ksh5.5 million, for the journey back to Kenya.

“They told me, ‘We paid those people for you to be here. For you to be here, we paid good money,’” he recalled.

He was subsequently taken to Kamenka, a military camp some 600km from Moscow, where he said he saw injured soldiers who had lost limbs and others who could barely sit.

After receiving a military identification document and service number, he was moved by train towards Rostov with other recruits.

Vincent said he received about a week of training, mainly in handling and firing a gun. He fired about 160 bullets a day but received little preparation for the realities of combat.

On the fifth day, according to Vincent, he and the others trained for half a day before being allowed to contact their families using the internet for the first time since landing in Russia.

Looking back, Vincent said the opportunity felt almost like a final farewell.

The group was later taken to Shebekino, some 596 km from Moscow, near Russia's border with Ukraine, before moving towards the frontline in Vovchansk, just 5 kilometres from the Russian border.

Deadly Crossing

To join the frontline, Vincent and 27 other men had to cross open agricultural fields directly separating the border of Russia and the frontline staging points from the northern edge of the woods and the riverbanks, spanning roughly 4 to 6 square kilometers of exposed terrain.

“That group that I was with, everybody died,” he said. Many were hit by drones and gunfire in the open field.

As he tried to escape the attacks, Vincent abandoned his gun and other equipment to move faster, remaining with his body armour.

At one point, he says, a drone began chasing him and luckily he found a decomposing body, which he used to shield against a drone strike. He survived, but his right hand was badly injured.

Bleeding heavily, he remained motionless for about 30 minutes as drones continued circling the area. When the activity subsided, he dragged himself towards the edge of Tatarsky Forest.

There, Vincent said, he and another wounded survivor dug a trench and covered themselves with dead bodies to avoid detection. His companion, who had suffered serious injuries to his leg and hand, tied Vincent's injured hand and helped him tend to his wounds.

“During the day is good. At night it is worse. There are drones that detect heat. We struggled and created a trench. We put dead bodies above us and hid under to survive,” Vincent said.

The following morning, a man who assessed his injuries reportedly dismissed them as “normal”, saying Vincent could still pull a trigger.

Vincent recalled that two Kenyans from the group died that day, including a man named Eric, whom he said was shot by a sniper.

At one point, Vincent said, only three Kenyans remained, including him. One had lost a leg, while another began running around in confusion before stepping on a landmine and dying.

At the frontline, he was allegedly shot in the thigh by a Russian soldier after he relieved himself without saving the urine in a water bottle.

According to Vincent, soldiers regarded urine as a source of water, and he said he had failed to use a water bottle when he went away.

His condition deteriorated, with the injured hand beginning to rot.

A Russian man who encountered him eventually helped him leave the frontline after learning that most of the people Vincent had joined had died.

Vincent spent 15 days making his way back, travelling with the Russian man and a younger companion who carried a walkie-talkie.

The younger man, who was walking ahead, was struck by a drone, Vincent said.

Vincent was eventually taken to a hospital in Moscow. However, the injuries to his hand have continued to trouble him, and he still requires surgery.

An Empty Bank Account

Even after leaving the frontline, Vincent said, his ordeal continued as he received treatment at a hospital in Moscow.

Vincent, who now had access to his phone, found his pay and bonuses had been withdrawn.

“I switched on my phone because I wanted to check for my bonus. I got a message, 800,000 was withdrawn…700,000 withdrawn. The account was empty,” Vincent narrated.

Adding, “I asked and was told it was the people who gave us access to our accounts. They say maybe it is your family that has withdrawn.”

During his hospital stay, he was informed he would return to the frontline in September 2025, which changed his focus to escaping the military.

Without a passport, but with access to his phone, Vincent began making attempts to reach the Kenyan embassy in Moscow for about three days without success.

When he finally got through, he secured permission from a novice at the military hospital to leave the hospital for three hours to visit the embassy.

However, he refused to return to the hospital once he arrived at the embassy.

Today, Vincent is still nursing wounds, with surgery still scheduled to repair his arm injured in the war.

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) believes over 1,000 Kenyans have been attracted to fight in the conflict that has shown no signs of ending since it first began in 2022.