November 25, 2024: The Russian military is trying to obtain recruits in Africa, but not so much to fight as to perform support activities. Russia realizes that African support for Russia is based on the work of Russian Orthodox Church activities since the late 1880s.

Currently Africa has over 730 million Christians, the largest number of any region in the world. Russian Orthodox Church missionaries are actively seeking new converts from other Christian sects as well as Moslem Africans. Since the Russian Orthodox Church is a government controlled organization, when reinforcements were needed in Ukraine, Russian Orthodox Church missions overseas were expected to help. The Russian Orthodox Church was one of the many Christian sects that have been active in Africa. These foreign missionaries concentrate on improving the lives of those they convert. This is an excellent way to obtain more converts.

Then came the war in Ukraine and the Russian Orthodox Church found itself with some serious internal problems. Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, initially criticized the war in Ukraine. Since he was a government employee, he quickly fell into line and supported the war. At the same time, many Russian Orthodox Church clergy openly opposed and denounced the war. The Ukrainian branch of the Russian Orthodox Church severed its connections with the Russian Church.

The overseas missionaries were few in number and had more important things to than criticize the war in far off Ukraine. After more than two years of war, the Russian Orthodox Church is being called upon to help the war effort in Ukraine. The Russian Orthodox Church has ceased to openly oppose the war and is willing to assist the government. The church was asked about recruiting African converts to perform non-combat jobs in Russia, so Russian men could fight in Ukraine. The Africans would be safe and earning more money than they could ever make in Africa.

There were still problems with this plan because it was widely known that previous foreign volunteers had ended up in Ukraine, although few were in combat or injured in any way. Some African students studying in Russia have joined the Russian army and ended up in Ukraine. There are about 10,000 foreigners working for the Russian military in Ukraine. Some have ended up in combat units, perhaps enticed by the large cash payments. The money has enabled African soldiers to buy things, like cellphones for themselves and their families back in Africa. Some of these African soldiers have been killed but there have been now official statistics on how many Africans are in Ukraine and what the casualties are. This will probably not be known until the war is over or until someone distributes cell phone photos via the internet showing African soldiers in Ukraine.