June 23, 2026

British Ex-Convict Trains Russia's African Recruits - and Stays Safe While They Die

A Daily Mail investigation published on 19 June 2026 identified a British convicted terrorist living in Russia who has spent the past year training hundreds of Russia's African recruits for deployment to Ukraine's front line. His name is Ben Stimson. He was granted Russian citizenship in February 2026, describes himself as "very well liked in the Russian army," and plans to sign another military contract when his current one expires. There is one detail he does not focus on: he trains the men, then they go forward. He does not.

Who Is Ben Stimson?

Stimson, 50, is a former antiques dealer from Oldham, Greater Manchester. He describes himself as a socialist with anti-NATO politics. His path to Russia began online in 2015, when his failing jewellery and ceramics business led him to Interbrigades, a Russian-linked foreign volunteer movement. He traveled to occupied Donbas in August 2015, spent three months there complaining about the lack of weapons, food, and pay, then returned to Britain — where he was arrested at Manchester Airport and convicted of terror offences. He served nearly seven years in prison.

On release he said he wanted to rebuild his life in Oldham. His business never recovered, he said, due to scrutiny as a convicted terrorist. In February 2024 he returned to Moscow and signed a professional military contract with the Russian Armed Forces. Kremlin-aligned MP Maria Butina publicly backed his citizenship application in February 2026: "Ben has already proven his love and loyalty to Russia."

The Training Pipeline — and Where Stimson Stands in It

Russia faces mounting manpower losses in Ukraine and has increasingly turned to Russian military recruitment of foreign nationals to fill assault-unit gaps without triggering a politically dangerous domestic mobilisation. Stimson was placed in charge of training that pipeline - Russia's African recruits in particular - last year.

He teaches infantry tactics, weapons handling, forest terrain navigation, and basic first aid. He told the Daily Mail: "I worked extensively with foreign volunteers during my contract in the Russian army, in particular with African volunteers. The training is intensive. It's just combat training. Each man knew what his job was and what he had to do."

What Stimson doesn't mention is that training lasts little to no time. Documented cases consistently show foreign recruits deployed after two to three weeks of preparation. A Tajik blacksmith, the first Central Asian to surrender to Ukraine through the "I Want to Live" project, received seven days of training in Voronezh and twelve more near Luhansk - nineteen days in total - before being sent to the front line. He described the whole scheme as "a one-way ticket."

Stimson flatly denied that any recruit was deceived: "The notion that foreign volunteers are being lied to or somehow tricked into signing contracts with the Russian army is laughable." The men held as prisoners of war inside a Ukrainian camp in Lviv - men Stimson himself trained or whose comrades he trained - tell a different story.

Christian Ilunga, a 31-year-old from Kinshasa now held at that camp, put it plainly after recognizing two of Stimson's trainees in a photograph: "The training offered by Russia is not enough. For people who have never been in combat before, they are being sent in blind." Willy Macharia, 23, from Kenya — who arrived in Russia expecting a driver's job — described three weeks of preparation before being put on a front line where he found Russian soldiers' bodies "everywhere."

Safe in the Rear While His Trainees Go Forward

There is a structural reality inside Russia's foreign fighter pipeline that Stimson's public statements gloss over: the British national with Russian citizenship trains the recruits, then stays behind. The men he instructs - most of them Africans and Asians who arrived in Russia looking for a Russian army salary they were told would be $2,000–$3,000 a month, or a factory job, or a security contract - are the ones sent into "reconnaissance-by-fire" assault operations. Stimson, by contrast, has a training role at a rear base, Russian citizenship, institutional backing from a Kremlin MP, and plans for a second contract. He has witnessed hundreds of foreign fighters pass through the pipeline. He has not followed them to the front line. The Daily Mail showed Stimson a photograph in which he poses grinning with a group of African trainees outside military tents. It then showed that photograph to one of those trainees' comrades - now a prisoner of war in Ukraine. The response was unambiguous.

Stimson with African recruiters of the Russian Army

"They Are Likely Dead" - Voices from Ukraine's Lviv POW Camp

Christian Ilunga, 31, Congo

Christian Ilunga, from Kinshasa, recognized two men in Stimson's photograph as friends he had known in Moscow - men from Mozambique.

"They are likely dead," he told the Daily Mail. "It's a harsh reality but if they are not here then that means they did not survive. I am not surprised because the training offered by Russia is not enough. For people who have never been in combat before they are being sent in blind."

Ilunga himself had been living in Russia after completing his studies. Drawn by a signing bonus and the promise of a salary that dwarfed anything available at home, he voluntarily enlisted in February 2026, intending to complete a one-year contract and leave as a wealthy man. He drew on prior experience in the Congolese military. Instead, he was forced into three consecutive failed assault operations in Donbas and captured by Ukrainian forces after just two weeks on the front line - wounded when a grenade exploded beside him.

Willy Macharia, 23, Kenya

Willy Macharia moved to Russia in July 2025 to work as a driver. His parents paid a Nairobi agency 500 USD to facilitate the move. What he believed was an employment contract turned out to be a military one. He was driven seven hours to a military base. Three weeks of training. Then the front.

"I saw the dead bodies of lots of Russian soldiers. I was scared because they were everywhere. I was praying that I would make it back alive."
Three months after arriving in Russia, Macharia was surrounded by drones alongside four Russian soldiers. A grenade struck his leg. He lay bleeding beneath a tree until Ukrainian forces reached him.

Kehinde Oluwagbemileke, 30, Nigeria

Kehinde Oluwagbemileke arrived from Lagos to study population and development, later acquired Russian citizenship, and in January 2025 voluntarily signed a one-year military contract on ideological grounds. "I signed up as a national duty. My ideology lined up with Russia."

Six months on the front line in Zaporizhzhia. Surrounded by drones. Shrapnel tearing into his leg, breaking his collarbone, badly damaging his kneecap. Seven days hiding. Then capture. He has been held at the Lviv camp for nearly a year.

When informed that Russia has refused to include foreign fighters in prisoner exchanges, he pushed back: "We are not foreign fighters. I'm a Russian soldier." Russia disagrees - or simply does not care.

Mehmet Gulbay, 36, Turkey - a NATO Country

The Daily Mail also documented the first known Turkish fighter - from a NATO member state - to have joined Russia's army. Gulbay, a freight driver from Ankara struggling financially, saw an advertisement on X (formerly Twitter) for Russian army contracts. He flew to Russia in October, signed in Nizhny Novgorod for USD 10.000 upfront and USD 2,500 a month - more than double the Turkish average wage. Fifteen days of training. Captured within weeks.

Russia's Foreign Recruitment Machine and the "Useful Idiot" Role

Ukraine's "I Want to Live" project coordinator Vitalii Matvienko was direct about what Stimson actually provides Russia: "Back when our country was still occupied by the Soviet Union, people from Western countries who openly supported authoritarian regimes were often referred to as 'useful idiots.' Like other high-profile foreign supporters of Russia, Ben Stimson's primary value lies in propaganda: helping create the illusion that Putin's regime enjoys understanding and support around the world."

The Africa Center for Strategic Studies has documented over 1,700 Africans from 36 countries in the Russian pipeline, with Kenya accounting for more than 1,000 - and an estimated 22% fatality rate among recruited Africans. The FSB runs the continental operation through Rossotrudnichestvo, "Russian Houses," and local intermediary agencies. Stimson's training role sits downstream of that infrastructure: he turns the product of that recruitment into soldiers fast enough to be useful, but not trained enough to survive.

Stimson also admitted he has personally helped at least ten foreign fighters join the war - while categorically denying he is a recruiter. He confirmed he is still waiting for his Russian citizenship documents and plans to sign another contract. He says there are more Britons fighting for Russia than is publicly known.

A British Ideologue in the Rear, African Men in the Meat Grinder

Vitalii Matvienko of Ukraine's "I Want to Live" project offered the sharpest summary of what Stimson actually represents: "Like other high-profile foreign supporters of Russia, Ben Stimson's primary value lies in propaganda - helping create the illusion that Putin's regime enjoys understanding and support around the world."

The reality behind that illusion is straightforward. A 50-year-old British ex-convict with anti-NATO politics, a Russian citizenship certificate, and a training role at a rear base poses for photographs with African recruits and calls the operation legitimate. The men in those photographs go forward to Donbas and Zaporizhzhia. Stimson does not. He plans to sign another contract.

Ukraine currently holds prisoners of war of 48 nationalities — and treats them in accordance with the Geneva Convention. For foreign nationals trapped in the Russian Armed Forces, surrender is the safest exit available.

If you or your relative signed or were coerced into signing a contract with the Russian Armed Forces and are looking for a way out - Ukraine offers a safe way out. Learn more here.

*Christian Ilunga is a pseudonym used over fear of reprisals from Russia.

Source: Daily Mail