Is Putin desperate for more soldiers? Indians tricked into fighting for the Russian army in Ukraine

According to the daily newspaper The Hindu, 18 Indians have been stranded since November in Donetsk, Kharkiv, Mariupol and Rostov-on-Don, along the border between Russia and Ukraine. All were allegedly recruited without their knowledge by the Russian armed forces.

According to a source from the Russian Defense Ministry, cited by The Hindu, around a hundred Indians were recruited over the last year by the Russian army. However, it appears that these nationals were duped and unaware of the real mission for which they were hired.

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In reality, these men aged 22 to 31 were hired by Russian agents to be “security auxiliaries”. According to their families, they were sent to the battlefield under the pretext of "training".

Pictured: Sheikh Mohammad Tahir, an Indian national recruited by the Russian army who managed to flee Russia after starting basic training.

The BBC, which spoke to some of their relatives, says the men all come from poor families. In India, their parents and siblings are tuk-tuk drivers, tea sellers, or cart sellers.

Photo: Belle Maluf / Unsplash

According to their relatives, these Indians were attracted by the promise of a higher salary, and the possibility of obtaining a Russian passport after a few months of military service. They maintain that they were not aware of the nature of their commitment.

"My 28-year-old son worked in a packaging company in Dubai. He, along with three friends, saw an agent's video offering jobs in Russia with a promised salary of 90,000 to 100,000 rupees, compared to their current earnings of 35,000 to 40,000 rupees. They paid the agent 300,000 rupees through loans. Please help bring my son back," the father of one of the victims told BBC Hindi.

The Hindu reports that the contracts, for a minimum duration of one year, do not provide for any days off or departure for six months. In addition, passports were allegedly confiscated.

Furthermore, a man from Uttar Pradesh, in northern India, claimed in a video, where he appears in military uniform, to have been recruited through social media. "In Moscow, we signed a contract in Russian and unwittingly became soldiers sent to fight in the war. We've been deceived," he said.

He added: "Please get us out of this place. Otherwise, they will send us to the front. There is artillery [fire] and drones falling all over. We have zero experience in fighting a war. The agents have put us in this fix."

On February 21, an Indian national named Hemil Ashvinbhai Mangukiya was reportedly killed by a missile, as reported by The Hindu. According to reports, he was killed in a Ukrainian airstrike in the Donetsk region while practicing shooting near a trench.

For its part, the Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs acknowledged “that certain Indian nationals were enlisted in the Russian army for support missions”.

On February 23, the Indian government said it had asked the Russian authorities for the "rapid demobilization" of its nationals enlisted by Putin's army.

Pictured: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2019.

“Each of the cases brought to the attention of the Indian Embassy in Moscow was dealt with firmly by the Russian authorities and those brought to the attention of the Ministry were handled by the Russian Embassy in New Delhi. Several Indians have already been released as a result,” the Indian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Pictured: Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Indian Foreign Minister.

Additionally, the ministry urged “all Indian nationals to exercise caution and stay away from this conflict.”

Indians are not the only foreigners to have been recruited by the Russian army. "According to some reports, there are soldiers from Asia, the Middle East and perhaps Africa fighting in Ukraine alongside Russian forces. There may be a few hundred of them," Oleg Ignatov said, analyst at the NGO International Crisis Group, with the French newspaper Libération.

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Neither Russia nor Ukraine has communicated the number of foreigners serving in their armies. However, the American television channel CNN estimates that between "14,000 and 15,000 Nepalese" have joined the ranks of the Russian army.