Immigrants “deceived” by the promise of jobs in Russia end up on the front lines of the war

Immigrants “deceived” by the promise of jobs in Russia end up on the front lines of the war


The family members are now asking the Indian government to bring them home.




At least a dozen Indians were tricked by recruiting agents into fighting for Russian forces in the country’s war against Ukraine – and one of them was reportedly killed in action.

According to The Hindu newspaper, Hemal Ashwinbhai, originally from the Indian state of Gujarat, died in a rocket attack at the end of February.

In an interview with the BBC, Hemal’s father said on February 23 that he had spoken to his son three days earlier. At the time, he said Hemal was about 20-22 kilometers inside the Ukrainian border – and called him every few days when he got a cell phone signal.

Desperate, the families of the men still fighting are now calling on the federal government to bring them home.

The deceived men, aged between 22 and 31, were hired as “helpers of military institutions in Russia” – and allegedly sent to the battlefield under the guise of “training”, according to their families.

Indian sources in Russia suggest that dozens of Indians have joined the Russian army. However, a Russian Defense Ministry source told The Hindu that the actual number of recruits last year is around 100.

The BBC contacted the Russian embassy in New Delhi but has not yet received a response.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs acknowledged “that some Indian citizens have enlisted for support roles in the Russian military.”



A man from the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh said he was recruited via a social media platform

“All cases brought to the attention of the Indian Embassy in Moscow have been discussed extensively with the Russian authorities, and those that have been brought to the attention of the Ministry have been discussed with the Russian Embassy in New Delhi. A number of Indians have consequently already been discharged,” the ministry said in a statement.

The Ministry also called on “all Indian citizens to exercise due caution and stay away from this conflict.”

Videos recorded by some of the men explaining how they were deceived by recruiting officers and sent to the battlefield have left their families in shock. They all come from poor backgrounds: their parents and siblings are car drivers. tuk-tuk or street vendors.

The victims and their families claim that the agents demanded 300,000 rupees (about R$18,000), promising a Russian passport after a few months of military service. The agents allegedly recruited people from India, the United Arab Emirates, Nepal and Sri Lanka, charging fees of up to 1.2 million rupees (about R$72,000).

The BBC spoke to some of their relatives, who say the men had been lured by the promise of higher wages – and didn’t know what they were getting themselves into. The identities of the men still in Russia will not be revealed in this report to protect them.

“My 28-year-old son worked in a packaging company in Dubai. He and three friends saw a video of an agent offering work in Russia with the promise of a salary of between 90,000 and 100,000 rupees, while earning All’ time between 35,000 and 40,000. They paid the agent 300,000 rupees through loans. Please help me bring my son back,” said the father, who sells tea and eggs from a wheelbarrow in Karnataka state, breaking down in tears over the phone with BBC Hindi, the BBC’s Hindi news service.



One man said the recruiting officer promised him a security role

Contract in Russian

His story mirrors that of others – from the states of Telangana, Gujarat, Kashmir, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh – who were also allegedly duped. Only one person managed to escape Moscow and return home.

A man from the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, speaking from a safe place in Moscow, appears in a video recorded in late January, saying that “they were brought here by BabaVlog [um canal do YouTube administrado por um indiano] and was promised a salary of 150 thousand rupees [por mês ]. We were not told we were going to be drafted into the army.” The BBC contacted the channel but received no response.

Those who would have been deceived have no experience of war. An Uttar Pradesh man dressed in an army uniform claims in a video message that he was recruited through a social media platform.

“In Moscow we signed a contract in Russian and involuntarily became soldiers sent to fight in the war. We were deceived,” says the man, claiming that he and two other Indians were wounded in combat, gesturing with his apparently wounded right hand .

“Please take us out of here. Otherwise they will send us to the front line. There are artillery and drones falling everywhere. We have no experience in fighting war. The agents put us in this situation,” he adds.

Speaking by telephone from the Russia-Ukraine border, a Kashmiri man said he was trapped in Mariupol, Ukraine, with an Indian companion and nine people from Nepal and Cuba. He said he accidentally shot himself in the foot while ‘training.

“My commander kept repeating: use your right hand to shoot, use your left hand to shoot, shoot high, shoot down,” he recalls.



In recent months the war in Ukraine has entered a stalemate

“I had never touched a gun before. It was very cold and, with the gun in my left hand, I ended up shooting myself in the foot.”

The brother of one of the men said he did not know whether the Indians were “in the private army of the Wagner group or in the Russian army. They are about 40 km from the border with Ukraine. They promised them Russian citizenship within three months “.

Only Shaikh Mohammed Tahir, from Ahmedabad in the Indian state of Gujarat, managed to avoid training – or not be sent to the war zone.

“I worked in a car battery shop here,” the 24-year-old said. He returned to India at the end of February.

The issue hit the headlines after Asaduddin Owaisi, an MP from Hyderabad city, drew attention to the issue. On January 23 he wrote to the Foreign Office, asking for government intervention to bring the men home.

Mallikarjun Kharge, leader of India’s main opposition party, the Indian National Congress, said around 100 Indians were “recruited by the Russian army as helpers” last year.

“Incredibly, some of them were forced to fight alongside Russian forces on the Russian-Ukrainian border. Some workers also said their passports and documents were seized, leaving them stranded and unable to return home,” he said.

When the war began in 2022, there were reports of Indians volunteering to join the Ukrainian army. But for the first time the presence of Indians in combat roles is reported on the Russian side.

The BBC also spoke to an Indian in Russia who served near the Ukrainian border and is no longer in the military. He said that, in his experience, the Russian military has been transparent and shared its contracts online. But he added that people who did not know Russian were being deceived by the agents.

Source: Terra

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