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| Ukraine in the middle of a conflict in Russia |
ABUJA, March 10 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The government of Nigeria has said it won’t permit its citizens to travel to Ukraine to fight on behalf of the European nation as it fends off Russia’s invasion.
The announcement comes after recent reports of an alleged recruitment campaign encouraging non-Ukrainian volunteers to travel to the country to take up arms.
Though the West African nation’s foreign ministry said the Ukrainian embassy refuted the allegation, it said the embassy “confirmed that a number Nigerians had approached the Embassy indicating their willingness to fight on the side of Ukraine in its ongoing conflict with Russia”.
The embassy also denied charging $1,000 as air ticket and visa fees for any Nigerian who is willing to travel to Ukraine to fight.
“Nigeria discourages the use of mercenaries anywhere in the world and will not tolerate the recruitment, in Nigeria, of Nigerians as mercenaries to fight in Ukraine or anywhere else in the world,” a spokesperson from the ministry said.
The announcement also comes after authorities in Senegal cautioned citizens from volunteering to travel to Ukraine to help the country fight against Russia. It also ordered the Ukrainian ambassador to delete a Facebook post that encouraged Senegalese people to travel to Ukraine to fight.
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a military operation in Ukraine on Feb 24. Despite international condemnation, Russian troops attacked Ukraine on multiple fronts from Belarus, Russia, and Crimea in what experts said could be the start of the war in Europe over Russia’s demands for an end to NATO’s eastward expansion.
For a long time, there had been tensions between Russia and Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, but the situation started getting worse in early 2021 when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged U.S. President Joe Biden to let Ukraine join NATO. Russia didn’t like this, and started sending troops near its Ukraine border for “training exercises” in spring last year and later increased it.
Meanwhile, covid-19 cases is on the rise in Nigeria as a result of the arrival of Nigerians from Ukraine following the Russian invasion.
Nigeria has recorded 118 new cases of COVID-19 infections as of Tuesday.
The release published by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) indicates that Nigerian returnees from Ukraine contributed to the surge. A total of 60 out of the backlog of 60 cases were reported from the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) for March 7, 2022.
Although there have been no records of deaths, the latest update shows that the death toll still stands at 3,142, while the infection toll has increased to 254,777.
A total of 249,209 persons have been discharged nationwide, with 2,311 active cases as of March 7. — NNN-AGENCIES
