A dozen warmly wrapped soldiers sing a Ugandan song, while a man mocks the "disposable" military in Russian. Following Kenya, neighboring Uganda is beginning to discover the fate of its citizens conscripted into the Russian army, who often end up killed in Ukraine.

The phenomenon, which has been stirring up the Kenyan press and the South African government for months and has been the subject of several journalistic investigations, including one on Monday by AFP, is not generating the same stir in Uganda, which has been ruled with an iron fist for 40 years by President Yoweri Museveni.

This country maintains a strong relationship with Russia.

"Call me a Putinist if you want. We, Uganda, should send soldiers to defend Moscow if it were ever threatened by imperialists," said the president's son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, who later became army chief, in March 2023.

Renowned for the quality of its soldiers, Uganda has long seen many of them, once they have left the uniform, join private military companies (PMCs) in countries like Afghanistan or Iraq.

The Special Association of Returnees (ASR), with 20,000 members, largely former Ugandan soldiers but also PMC employees, says it was targeted by several "agents", one of whom offered them work contracts in Israel, only to then send them to Russia.

"We told our members that (...) they would die (in Russia) with a bullet in their head and their corpses would be buried in the snow or left for the vultures to devour," an executive of this organization told AFP.

- "Disposable" soldiers -

The ASR estimates that "more than 10" of its members have joined the Russian army, three of whom have died.

This figure is very likely an underestimate, as Ugandan security forces announced last August that they had intercepted nine men at Entebbe airport (south) who were leaving for Moscow to work as "security agents".

They were part of a group of "more than 100 men", of whom "all had a military background" and were to go to Russia in different waves, they explained on X.

Although security forces initially wrote that the departing fighters would be fighting for Ukraine, which seemed wrong as they flew to Moscow, a security source told AFP that their final destination was indeed Russia.

Since that operation, little effort appears to have been made to curb the phenomenon. A Russian citizen arrested in connection with the case has been released, and the legal process has stalled, the source continued.

To avoid being intercepted, many Ugandan candidates for Russia are now simply flying from neighboring Kenya, according to another security source.

A video released in January by a pro-Ukrainian account on X and viewed more than eight million times shows about ten Ugandans chanting a military song in a forest with the ground covered in snow.

In Uganda, the accompanying commentary in Russian is causing concern: "Look how many disposable (soldiers) there are here. And they're singing too. They're happy. Too bad. They'll sing differently when they leave" for the front, quips the likely author of the video, whose location AFP was unable to verify.

- "Threatened with a gun" -

On the Ugandan channel NTV, the widow of Edson Kamwesigye, who said she had previously worked in Iraq, without specifying in what context, asked the Ugandan authorities for help to repatriate the body of her husband, who died in January on the Ukrainian front.

Photos of the 46-year-old man's battered and lifeless face and his papers have appeared on social media.

Richard Akantoran, a poor worker from Kampala, recounts being promised a job in a supermarket in Russia - only to be forced to join the Russian army once he arrived there, "threatened with a gun, at point-blank range," he mimes, his fist on his throat, in a video published by the Ukrainian army, which took him prisoner.

"Don't fall into the trap," warns this man in his thirties, father of two daughters. "Imagine being in combat and dying for nothing."

The Ugandan government, which in February 2024 touted the "unlimited opportunities" in Russia, has so far only advised those considering leaving to exercise caution. This is a very moderate tone compared to that used by Kenya, which this week described as "unacceptable" the fact that its young people are being used as "cannon fodder."

Uganda, regularly criticized for its human rights violations, has always abstained from voting on UN Security Council resolutions condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

"The fact that the Ugandan government does not strongly condemn (the recruitment of its citizens) is revealing," said Mwambutsya Ndebesa, a political analyst interviewed by AFP.

Kampala and Moscow, which, he says, "have developed a relationship built around security and defense", now perfectly illustrate "the adage that birds of a feather flock together".