The advert for a job in a Russian shampoo factory looked like just what Jean Onana needed.

Out of work in the Cameroonian capital of Yaounde and struggling to support a wife and three young children, he leapt at the chance to earn a solid pay packet, he later told Ukrainian interrogators.

The 36-year-old saved up for his ticket and flew to Moscow in March, joining many young Africans who end up in Russia to study or seek work.

However, far from offering the answer to his financial predicament, his trip instead pitched him into the crucible of Ukraine’s eastern front, an ordeal he only narrowly survived.

Mr Onana had barely arrived when he was detained along with 10 others from Bangladesh, Cameroon, Zimbabwe and Ghana.

The men were told they would not be working and instead would sign a one-year contract to join the Russian military and serve on the front lines of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.