Jean Claude Sangwa and his friend , (also from DR Congo) are among the few Africans fighting on the side of Russia in Luhanska, a Ukrainian city that is administered by Russia.
As Africans students fled after Putin launched an assault on Ukraine, Sangwa who was studying economics stayed behind with his fellow countrymen to fight for Putin.
"If there is no peace in the place where you live, what are you going to do? Go to sleep and wait for it to end? That is not a man," said Sangwa who calls himself Roho Muzuri on Instagram.
"I chose Russia because it was my dream country. And my father's too. I went to the army with my father's blessing, he sent me to Russia before he died."