New Delhi: India is trying to get back the bodies of two Punjabis who were killed in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war after being recruited into the Russian Army as “security helpers”.
However, the repatriation of the bodies could take time as they have to be extracted from the conflict zone, ThePrint has learnt.
The recruitment of Indians by the Russian military as “helpers” has become a thorny issue between the two countries, government sources said.
According to the sources, the Russians have played hardball and not responded to Indian requests since the beginning of this year to send back such recruits urgently.
Tired of Russian stonewalling, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) this week issued a strong statement demanding that there be a “verified stop to any further recruitment of Indian nationals by the Russian Army” and that such activities would not be in “consonance with our partnership”.
The strongly worded paragraph was part of a statement announcing the death of the two Indian nationals. The MEA added that New Delhi had taken up the matter strongly with Moscow and sought the early release and return of all Indians who were with the Russian Army.
While India and Russia have strong ties and have maintained steady cooperation despite the ongoing war, the matter of Indians on the frontlines is deeply concerning, sources said.
“It is our citizens who are stuck. However they may have reached Russia, it is incumbent upon the Russians to ensure they are sent back and not put at risk. We are pressing for this,” a source said.
In March this year, 30-year-old Hyderabad resident Mohammed Asfan died from injuries sustained while serving with Russian troops on the frontlines. .
In February, Hemal Ashwinbhai Mangua, a 23-year-old resident of Surat, died in a Ukrainian air strike while serving as a “security helper” in the Donetsk region.
Sources said about 30 Indian nationals have contacted the Indian embassy in Moscow seeking to return after they found themselves on the frontlines of a war they had not signed up for. Of this, only about 10 have come back, including those who fled.
There may be more Indians in Russia who have not contacted the embassy, according to sources. While the exact figures are still not known, several reports have said that over 100 Indians have joined the Russian military as helpers.
It is believed that many of them went to Russia on the lure of high wages and promises of permanent residency by dubious recruitment agencies.
Sources said Indians were initially made to work as helpers away from the war zone and were given basic training on the pretext of making them ready for any eventuality — and then they ended up on the frontlines.
Meanwhile, Russian embassy sources have denied that any Indians were hired to serve in their military. The two countries’ foreign offices have been in touch over the issue but there was no clear idea about how the Indians were reaching such areas, they added.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
The first paragraph mentions “bodies of two Punjabis…” Surely, identifying the two dead as Indians could have been more than enough or the dead could have been mentioned as people from Punjab (in case these people were from Punjab) rather than getting into descriptions of racial identity.
The intro mentions “contacted the Russian embassy in Moscow” when it should be “Indian embassy”. Could you correct this?