UK slaps sanctions on individuals leading recruitment for Russian army in Kenya

The United Kingdom has today slapped sanctions on several individuals linked to the trafficking of Kenyans into Russia and sending them to the war frontlines. 

Among the key suspects hit with the sanctions announced Tuesday is Mikhail Lyapin, the man. The Standard reported last year to have run a business in Nairobi, but only used it as a veil to run a network of predatory recruitment of Kenyans into Russia’s war. 

He was arrested following the Athi River house arrests and deported in September last year (2025).

The sanctions, according to the UK’s Foreign Office, include possible freezing of their assets and travel bans. 

UK Sanctions Minister Stephen Doughty said the practice of exploiting vulnerable people to prop up Russia’s failing and illegal war in Ukraine is barbaric.  

“Today’s sanctions expose and disrupt the operations of those trafficking migrants as cannon fodder and feeding Putin’s drone factories with illicit components to target innocent civilians and vital infrastructure”. 

Mikhail’s name has kept cropping up in several investigations that place him at the centre of predatory recruitment for the Russian army that started in Kenya months after Russia invaded Ukraine.

His methods were to promise victims lucrative jobs, but on arrival in Russia, they were coerced into signing contracts with the Russian military. 

They would then be deployed with minimal training and under dire conditions to the frontline to sustain Russia’s illegal war of aggression, said the UK’s foreign office is a statement shared with The Standard and uploaded on its website. 

The latest action hits 35 individuals and entities, including those responsible for human trafficking networks, funnelling exploited migrants into Russia’s war machine trafficking.  

“Networks sanctioned today by the UK have been deceptively recruiting foreign migrants, including Kenyans, in search of a better life and sending them to the front line as cannon fodder or putting them to work in weapons factories”. Read the statement in part, “ This includes schemes like Russia’s Alabuga Start programme from drone production – a UK-sanctioned entity”.  

The decision comes barely 70 days after the National Intelligence Service warned that Mikhail was planning to return to Kenya to further his cause of leading more recruitments for 

Russia’s war. 

In a statement read to Parliament by Majority leader Kimani Ichungwa in mid-February, NIS said it had established that Mikhail, alias Sargevich, was linked to Festus Omwamba’s 

trafficking activities. His social media presence under the handle @Mishayalpin identified him as the founder of Mwaki Kenya and as an African markets enthusiast. Mikhail was arrested on 25th September 2025, repatriated to Russia on 26th September 2025, and issued an Alert-to-Monitor.

An order was issued against him by the Kenyan authorities to ensure that the relevant state bodies can detect him if he attempts to re-enter the country.  

“Reports indicate that he is already planning to sneak back into Kenya”, Ichungwah told the House on February 18. 

Mikhail worked closely with Festus, who ran a rogue agency that has since been deregistered. 

The Global Face Human Resources Limited was a private recruitment agency that was located along Koinange Street in Nairobi. The agency had been registered on 15th February 2024 and had not been accredited by the National Employment Authority by the time investigations were launched against its activities.  

Festus today faces charges of human trafficking at Kahawa law courts after surrendering to authorities late last year. His agency actively conducted recruitment drives in Kenya, targeting skilled and semi-skilled youth for foreign employment, using the Kazi Majuu Initiative to present itself as a legitimate, Government-endorsed recruiter.

The recruits would depart the country on tourist visas to clandestinely join the Russian military. Their travel routes were through Istanbul and Abu Dhabi.  

Several victims have returned to Kenya, either maimed or having managed to escape from the war zone through the assistance of the Kenyan Embassy in Moscow. The majority of the recruited Kenyans indicated that they were made to sign contracts by the agency and an unnamed overseas employment support agency based in Moscow, Russia. Upon arrival in Moscow, they were taken to military camps, trained for three weeks and subsequently deployed to the battlefields against Ukraine, The Standard has earlier reported. 

Other targets sanctioned by the UK on Tuesday include individuals and entities based in third countries, including Thailand and China, responsible for supplying drone components and other critical military goods to Russia. Among them is Pavel Nikitin, a native of Belarus whose company (name not given) develops Russia’s VT-40 drone - a cheap, mass-produced attack drone which has been used extensively by Russia in its attacks on Ukraine.  

Nikitin is known for manufacturing kitchenware but is now said to hide drone manufacture from prying eyes and has since morphed into ‘a lord of Russian Drones’.

A Belarussian team of journalists investigative published on a website called Belarussian Investigative Centre, revealed how, behind the facade of a civilian enterprise, an infrastructure of war has taken shape — enabling Moscow to keep attacking Ukraine despite sanctions.  

Also sanctioned on Tuesday are three individuals whose identities the UK’s Foreign Office did not disclose. It said they have links to the Russian state, involved in recruiting individuals to travel to Ukraine to fight for Russia.  

The UK remains unwavering in its support for Ukraine and will continue to use the full force of its sanctions powers to disrupt Russia’s hybrid threats and squeeze the Kremlin’s war efforts machine, said the Foreign Office statement.

“Today’s measures underline our determination to hold Russia and its enablers to account, defend European security and support Ukraine’s fight for freedom”.   

Russia continues to terrorise Ukraine by indiscriminately using drones, killing and injuring innocent civilians and damaging critical infrastructure. Russia fired the equivalent of over 200 drones per day into Ukraine in March 2026, the highest ever monthly total. 

Russia is likely to exceed this grim record for a second consecutive month in April.  

The UK has promised to continue disrupting Russia’s military supply chains and the callous trafficking of foreign migrants in a fresh wave of sanctions. 

Tuesday’s action demonstrates continued UK leadership to combat Russian aggression at every level, ratchet up economic pressure on the Kremlin and support Ukraine for as long as it takes to secure a just and lasting peace.