Behind the towering white walls topped with rolls of barbed wire under the glaring eyes of security cameras, a lone figure shuffles slowly across the cracked concrete yard of a fortified prison in western Ukraine.
He wears a blue inmate uniform with a matching cap, his face drawn and weary. His name is Joshua – at least that’s what he chooses to go by – and he is the only Ghanaian prisoner of war being held by Ukrainian forces in the region.
For nine months now, Joshua, who offered his Instagram page as @Joshchrz, has been counting the days in silence, striking out each one with a pen inside a tattered jotter he carries close to his chest. The entries are sparse, the handwriting unsteady. He doesn’t know when – or if – he’ll ever be free. Each dawn feels the same, but today, the loneliness cuts deeper. Somewhere far away, his wife might be holding a child he’s never seen.
“I want my wife Sally, who is currently in Dubai, to know that I am alive,” he tells The Africa Report after we gained exclusive access to the detention center.
“I feel so bad that I left her in that state [five months pregnant] and I don’t even know what is happening to her. I know everyone will be asking her: where is your husband and your kids’ father? Sally, I am not dead. I want to use this medium to let you know that I am strong and will come out strong. We shall meet again.”
Harsh price of desperation
Joshua, now in his late 30s, worked for five years in Dubai as a fire and rescue officer. Like many Africans abroad, he harbored big dreams.
“I decided to look for school to further my education,” he says. His first choice was Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, Canada. He secured admission, but his visa was denied due to what officials cited as a lack of strong financial backing.
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He had even applied to join the British Royal Army but leaned instead toward education. “In December 2023, I had already applied for another school in Russia and gained admission… but I wasn’t so keen on going to Moscow. Canada was my goal,” he says.
But with Canada out of reach, and no longer welcome in Dubai after quitting his job, Russia became his reluctant plan B. By July 2024, Joshua was in Moscow with a short-term student visa, only to be told he was too late to register. Returning home wasn’t an option. …a Nigerian acquaintance offered what seemed like a lifeline.
What followed was anything but “I felt Russia is a good country. I knew it was going to be tough living in a foreign country without legal documents,” he says.
Then came Kylian, a Nigerian acquaintance who offered him what seemed like a lifeline – a job as a security guard on lands ‘captured’ by the Russian military. The job came with promises of a fast-tracked Russian passport and a monthly salary of 195,000 rubles (around $2,480). It sounded like salvation.
What followed was anything but. On 10 July 2024, Joshua signed a contract. Instead of guarding buildings, he was taken to Avangard for two weeks of military training, then to Rostov for weapons instruction.
In Donetsk, he received two more weeks of frontline preparation. “The commander informed me that I will be taken to the frontline to fight,” he says.
“I had no choice [but] to obey. I was at a point of no return.”
Frontline nightmare
He says his first day in battle was a nightmare. “We were 12 soldiers in a tank… all I could hear was bombs blasting and guns being fired all over. A drone dropped a bomb on our tank. It exploded. Eight of my crew died on the spot.”
Miraculously, Joshua survived, crawling out of the wreckage and hiding in the trenches for three days. In his dazed escape attempt, he wandered unknowingly into Ukrainian-held territory. On 6 September 2024, he was captured.
“I spent a lot of time in different jails in the hands of the Ukrainians,” he says.
“I was moved to this prison camp on 23 April 2025.”
The exercise area in prison where Joshua and fellow inmates play football.
Today, inside this unnamed prison, Joshua rotates through menial tasks for the equivalent of $9 a month. He cooks, makes chairs, and assembles Christmas trees, all while nursing the trauma of war and captivity. He clings to hope – one day, he says, he wants to return to school, and maybe even run for president in Ghana.
‘I’ll go back to Russia’ “I am very hopeful that I am going to come out of this prison,” he says. “I survived the terrible situation in the frontline, so definitely I will make it out of this prison. I have no choice but to go back to Russia if I make it out. I am not scared. But I am not going to fight again – I want to pursue my education dream.”Where Joshua and his mates sleep in the detention camp.
His tale is not isolated. Joshua is part of a growing number of young African men lured into the Russia-Ukraine war by unscrupulous recruiters. In late 2024, about 14 Ghanaians – duped into military service after being promised jobs in agriculture and security – pleaded publicly for help. Since then, nothing has been heard of them.
With unemployment soaring across Africa, foreign conflict zones are increasingly preying on vulnerable young men.
What’s next for Joshua?
Ukrainian officials say they are not indifferent to these prisoners’ fates. “Whenever it comes to the issue of any captive from Africa or other countries, the army headquarters or the intelligence service informs the ministry of foreign affairs,” says Maksym Subkh, Ukraine’s special representative for the
Middle East and Africa.
“The least we can do is to inform the captive’s embassy that Ukraine is ready to hand over the prisoner of war, but still there are some concrete procedures
to be followed,” Subkh tells The Africa Report, referring to legal issues.
That bureaucratic process remains invisible to Joshua. Days blend into nights behind the prison walls. His only clock is the jotter, and his only strength comes from the dream of seeing Sally and his two children again.
“I miss my family,” he says, almost in a whisper. “I have been having dreams about my mom and dad and my wife too… I want my family to know that I am alive.”
Until then, he waits – blue-capped, determined, lost in his memories.
