Russia Sends Jailed Zambian Student To Fight In Ukraine; Student Killed At Battlefront
A 23-year-old Zambian student has been killed in Ukraine while fighting on the Russian side, a Zambian government official has said.
In a statement issued on Monday, Zambia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Stanley Kakubo said Lemekhani Nathan Nyirenda was studying nuclear engineering at the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute (MEPhI).
Kakubo said in 2020, Nyirenda broke Russia’s laws and was subsequently convicted and sentenced to nine years at Tyer medium security facility on the outskirts of the Russian capital in April 2020. Reads the statement by Kakubo:
PRESS STATEMENT BY HON. STANLEY K. KAKUBO, M.P, MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION, ON THE DEMISE OF A ZAMBIAN NATIONAL IN UKRAINE
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation regrets to inform the Nation of the untimely demise of Mr. Lemekhani Nathan Nyirenda, a 23-year-old Zambian Government sponsored student, who was pursuing Nuclear Engineering at the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute (MEPHI) in the Russian Federation.
The Ministry is saddened to inform that, on 9th November, 2022, it was notified of the demise of Mr. Nyirenda, at the battlefront of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Through the Embassy of the Republic of Zambia in Moscow, the Ministry immediately proceeded to verify this information where it was established that Mr. Nyirenda indeed passed away on 22nd September 2022, in Ukraine.
The Embassy further established that Mr. Nyirenda’s remains have since been transported to the Russian border town of Rostov in readiness for repatriation to Zambia.
The Ministry wishes to further state that in April 2020, Mr. Nyirenda contravened the laws of the Russian Federation and as such, was subsequently convicted and sentenced to nine years and six months imprisonment.
He was serving his sentence at Tyer Medium Security Prison on the outskirts of Moscow.
In view of this very sad development, the Zambian Government has requested the Russian authorities to urgently provide information on the circumstances under which a Zambian citizen, serving a prison sentence in Moscow, could have been recruited to fight in Ukraine and subsequently lose his life.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation is deeply saddened by the untimely demise of Mr. Nyirenda under such circumstances and commiserates with the family on their loss.
As minister, I have been personally in touch, and will maintain contact, with the family of the deceased in order to provide an update on more details surrounding their loved one’s death, once official communication is received from the Russian authorities
