War in Ukraine: student from Zambia, captured in Russia, found dead in battle

A 23-year-old Zambian student who was convicted in Russia and began serving a prison sentence in the Moscow region has been found dead in combat in Ukraine, the Zambian government said on Monday, which turned to Russia for clarification.

Lemehani Nathan Nyirenda “died on 22 September 2022 in Ukraine,” Foreign Minister Stanley Kakubo said in a statement, “on the front lines of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.”

This nuclear student at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology was sentenced to nine years and six months in prison. He was serving his sentence in a maximum security prison on the outskirts of Moscow. Zambia said it had asked Russia for clarification “about the circumstances under which a Zambian citizen serving a prison sentence in Moscow could be recruited to take part in hostilities in Ukraine and died.”

Spectrum of the Wagner group

The head of the Wagner paramilitary group, Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is known to be close to Vladimir Putin, is accused by Ukraine of sending thousands of fighters recruited directly from Russian prisons to the front, despite the promise of salaries and amnesty.

Lemehani Nathan Nyirenda was found guilty of violating Russian law in April 2020, according to the Zambian government, which did not provide further details.

The Zambian foreign minister said he was “deeply saddened by the untimely death of Mr. Nyirenda under these circumstances”, adding that the body was moved to the Russian border city of Rostov-on-Don for repatriation.