‘We walked into hell’: Tricked into Russia’s Ukraine war, Indians who escaped live with trauma

BENGALURU – The horrors of a war he did not choose and the deaths he saw up close have broken Mr Jain T.K, an Indian citizen who once believed that his fortune lay beyond his country’s shores. 

“I want to return home somehow. I am tired. It’s been too long,” the 27-year-old told The Straits Times in a video call on Jan 29, before shutting his eyes in pain as he lay half-paralysed on a hospital bed in Moscow.

The mechanical diploma holder from Wadakkanchery, in the southern Indian state of Kerala, is one of more than 100 Indians known to have been recruited into the Russian army to fight in Ukraine, a war zone that has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and injured even more since 2022.

Mr Jain travelled to Russia in April 2024 for what he thought was a job as an electrician in the Russian army, after paying a recruiter in Kerala around 240,000 rupees (S$3,700).

To his shock, he was sent to the front line a few months later.

At first, he and his friend, Mr Binil T.B, 32, were tasked with delivering water and food to Russian combatants. But on Dec 5, 2024, they were handed guns and deployed in combat, with commanders issuing orders in the Russian language that they did not understand. 

Confused, they simply followed the Russian soldiers, and tried to stay out of harm’s way.

“Within days, I saw my friend Binil lying dead on his face. The next day, I was injured in a drone attack,” said Mr Jain. 

Bleeding profusely from injuries to his left side and stomach that left him unable to walk, Mr Jain dragged himself for 9km in the freezing weather of minus 10 deg C to minus 17 deg C, until he reached a medical camp.

He was subsequently taken to Moscow for further treatment in late December.

Mr Jain can be discharged only after he is able to walk and the Indian embassy in Russia issues him an emergency passport. His original passport was confiscated not long after he arrived in the country.

As he waits to go home, Mr Jain calls the family of Mr Binil, his slain friend, every day.

“I was the one who informed his family after I saw his body, otherwise they would still be in the dark,” he said.

Mr Binil’s brother-in-law Saneesh told ST that Mr Binil’s parents, wife and five-month-old child “have not got closure” after his death, because the authorities have yet to identify his body and send it home for his last rites.

Mr Jain said: “I feel lucky, but also guilty to have survived.”

Thousands of men from across the world – including India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, the Middle East, and Africa – have been recruited to replenish the ranks of the depleted Russian armed forces as the war in Ukraine approaches its third anniversary. 

The Indian government confirmed on Feb 6 that 12 Indians have been killed while fighting for Russia. The bodies of nine have been sent home, while two were cremated in Russia.

At least 18 Indians remain in the Russian armed forces, of whom 16 are reported as “missing” or cannot be traced, said India’s Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh in Parliament.

It is unclear if Mr Binil is counted as dead, or recorded as missing.

Mr Singh added that the government is in touch with the Russian authorities “to ensure the safety, well-being, and early discharge of all such individuals, and their return to India”.

In July 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin had assured Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a meeting in Moscow that Indians misled into Russian military service would be discharged.

Thus far, 97 Indians have been repatriated. The majority of them returned with harrowing tales of being tricked by human trafficking networks into fighting on the Russia-Ukraine front line – a warning to other would-be migrants.

Deceptive recruitment

More than 100 Indians were allegedly duped into travelling to Russia by Indian-origin recruiters, who spun tales of non-combatant job opportunities in Russian army camps that offered salaries of 200,000 rupees a month – lucrative by the standards of most people in India.

They were also promised Russian citizenship and residency papers, besides free healthcare and education for their families. In some cases, the recruiters are said to have offered facilitation of illegal immigration to Europe.

While the unscrupulous agents demanded payment of $3,000 to $5,000 from men in states such as Kerala and Kashmir, police said hopeful migrants from Punjab, Haryana and Bihar were charged around $15,000.

Indian investigators have so far arrested more than 20 recruiters and visa consultants across the country for human trafficking.

Ten Indian recruits who served for a short time in the Russian army told ST that they had signed one-year contracts, with translators and agents explaining that benefits such as Russian citizenship and permanent residency status would be granted upon completion of their service.

Three Russian-language Defence Ministry contracts seen by ST pertaining to “voluntary military service” in the Russian armed forces explicitly state a requirement to “participate in hostilities” for six months. 

But it appears that few Indian recruits were clearly told that they would have to go into combat.

Mr Renil Thomas, 44, a chef from Kerala’s Nedumbassery, who travelled to Russia in July 2024 and was evacuated in September 2024, told ST that he did not know what the contract said. 

“The translators didn’t tell me I had to actually fight in the war. Why would I leave my wife and five-year-old daughter to go to die?” he asked, adding that the recruiter told him he was being hired as a cook in a Russian army canteen.

Mr Arbab Husain, a 23-year-old graduate from Kasganj, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, said his agent had assured him that he would be far from the war zone. 

“He told me, ‘There is fighting at the India-China border. Does anyone in Delhi feel its effect?’ He assured me I would be working in the Moscow airport’s Customs department, nowhere near any war,” said Mr Arbab, who went to Russia in November 2023.

Mr Renil and Mr Arbab were stationed in different regions of Russia six months apart. But both realised something was amiss after 1½ months, when their passports and phones were taken away, and they were trained to use Kalashnikov assault rifles, lob grenades, build bombs, and dig trenches.

When they were deployed to fight in Ukraine after minimal training, they used borrowed phones to post videos online, asking to be rescued. 

Mr Arbab and two Indians in his group – Mr Mohammed Asfan, 30, from Hyderabad in southern Telangana state, and Mr Zahoor Ahmad Sheikh, 27, from Karnah in Kashmir – were among the first to sound the alarm online. 

“They have given us guns. We don’t want it,” Mr Arbab said in one video.

Within days on the front line, Mr Asfan was hit by bullets, then killed in a drone attack on the way to the hospital. His family received news of his death on March 5, 2024.

Mr Zahoor has been missing for almost a year now, and his family fears he has also been killed.

Mr Arbab experienced a missile attack that injured his left hand and shattered his spectacles.

“I walked for three days, past dead bodies everywhere, till I found a hospital. I closed so many open, stricken, dead eyes on the way,” he said. 

After preliminary treatment at the hospital, Mr Arbab ran away to avoid being sent to the front line again.

He hid for three months in demolished buildings, scavenging for food and water, till the Indian embassy issued an emergency passport that enabled him to return home in April 2024. 

Contract soldiers

A Russian government recruiter told ST that recruitment of foreign soldiers is permitted by law. He requested anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

A fast track to citizenship and residency is among the perks laid out in the simplified military employment law that came into force in the Russian Federation on Sept 30, 2022, as Mr Putin sought to augment his nation’s armed forces following the invasion of Ukraine in February that year.

Over 450,000 people signed contracts to serve in Russia’s armed services in 2024, according to Mr Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council. Russian media outlet Vyorstka reported that with fewer Russians volunteering since 2024, the army was turning to Asians and Africans, with one-time payments of 1.9 million roubles (S$26,500) on completion of the contract.

Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry said 554 Sri Lankans, including retired military personnel, have been recruited by the Russian army, of whom 59 are confirmed to have been killed. Estimates of Nepali nationals in the Russian army range from 1,000 to 15,000, with those dead numbering between 25 and 52.

India’s Central Bureau of Investigation has found that most Indians who sought to emigrate were misled about the stakes, or had already paid too much to their agents to cancel plans. 

Among the accused recruiters is a Dubai-based agent, Faisal Khan, who posted job advertisements on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok as Baba Vlogs.

In one video, he walks down a street in Russia’s St Petersburg saying that for a fee of US$3,600, “you can get a job as a helper” in the Russian army.

“You don’t have to fight. All you have to do is to clear demolished buildings, look after armouries and after a year of service, you’ll be eligible for permanent residence,” he says. 

But victims like Mr Jain and Mr Arbab live to tell the story, scarred for life.

Even as his injured left hand recovers, Mr Arbab told ST that his “mental health never gets better”.

He could not accept that the “agents sold us like slaves for money”.

In the video call from the Moscow hospital, Mr Jain said he keeps remembering the face of his friend Binil, whom he had convinced to join him in Russia after the latter lost his job in Oman.

“Desperate without a job at home, we walked foolishly into hell,” he said.