DURBAN - International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola has confirmed that two South African recruits have died in Russia.
He said the pair were not among the 17 South Africans recruited as contract soldiers in the Russian military but rather part of another scheme which took them there.
“Except for those that died, there is also others that were part of the scheme.”
Initially government received distress calls from 17 South African men, aged between 20 and 39, seeking for assistance to return home.
Eleven of the men landed in South Africa on Wednesday. They joined four other who had already made it back to the country.
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Two men remain in Russia, with one of them in a hospital in Moscow. It is unclear whether he sustained his injuries on the frontline.
Lamola said the two were not in the state to travel as per doctors advise.
The Minister said key to them right now is the fact that the men have been released from the contracts that had kept them in Russia.
“Even when they are in hospital, they are now free to travel. Its just they could not travel because of medical reasons,” Lamola said.