A Zambian student imprisoned in Russia has been killed during fighting in Ukraine, Zambia’s foreign ministry said on Monday.   

  The student was a 23-year-old student who had been sponsored by the Zambian government to study nuclear engineering at the Moscow Institute of Engineering Physics.   

  The man was identified as Lemekhani Nathan Nyirenda by Zambian Foreign Minister Stanley Kakubo in a statement.   

  Nyirenda was convicted in 2020 of unspecified crimes in Russia and jailed for nine years and six months.  He was serving his sentence at the Tyer Medium Security prison on the outskirts of Moscow,” according to the statement.   

  Zambia’s foreign ministry said it was informed of his death “on November 9, 2022 … on the frontline of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.”   

  The ministry said it had urgent questions for Moscow about how Zambia ended up fighting for Moscow.   

  “In view of this very sad development, the Zambian government has requested the Russian authorities to urgently provide information on the circumstances under which a Zambian citizen, serving a prison sentence in Moscow, could have been recruited to fight in Ukraine and then lose his life.”   

  In August, a CNN investigation found that Russia was conscripting prisoners into its military in exchange for their freedom.   

  Hundreds of prisoners are believed to have been held in Russian prisons as Moscow struggles to bolster its troops, which have suffered heavy losses since the start of the war.   

  It remains unclear how many Africans have joined the Russian military since its months-long invasion of Ukraine.   

  The ministry says the man’s remains were taken to the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don to be repatriated to Zambia.   

  CNN has reached out to Zambia’s foreign ministry for more information.   

  Thousands of Africans, mostly students, fled the onslaught of Russian troops as they marched into Ukraine in February.   

  However, many foreign students reported experiencing segregation and racism at the border.  Many of the students who escaped were later taken back to their various countries by their governments.