Gurugram: A visit to Russia on a tourist visa to create a travel history for a visa to Australia has landed a 19-year-old from Haryana’s Karnal in the Russian army.
The youth, Harsh Kumar, is among seven men from Punjab and Haryana, all between the ages of 20 and 24 years, who have posted a plea on social media claiming that they were deceived by an agent into joining the Russian army, and have sought intervention from the Indian authorities.
Ever since the video surfaced Monday, Harsh’s family, comprising his grandmother Kamla Devi, father Suresh Kumar, mother Suman Devi, and brother Sahil Saroha in Sambhli village of Karnal, has been distraught.
The youth’s father, brother and some other relatives have met Karnal MP Sanjay Bhatia and asked for help in bringing Harsh back from Russia, which has been engaged in a war with Ukraine for long.
When ThePrint called Sahil Friday, the call was answered by a person who introduced himself as Sahil and Harsh’s maternal uncle, Sunil Kumar.
23-year-old man who said he is from #Gurdaspur #Punjab #GagandeepSingh called @ndtv @ndtvindia to appeal to @MEAIndia @states_mea @DrSJaishankar to help them return to India; says 7 of them who met in Russia may be deployed any time, without any training, to fight war in #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/re6eFuyY1v
— Uma Sudhir (@umasudhir) March 4, 2024
“Since morning we have been answering calls from mediapersons. Some others have landed in the village. Sahil is just 21 and is exhausted from repeating the same sequence of events over and over. It is past 1 pm and no one in our family has been able to have breakfast so far. On the one hand, we are worried about Harsh’s well-being and on the other, we are having to repeat everything scores of times,” said Kumar.
He added that all members of Harsh’s family were distressed and hoping for his safe return.
According to Kumar, Harsh had left for Russia on 25 December last year on a tourist visa to celebrate new year there.
“How he landed in the Russian army came to our knowledge only through the video on social media,” Kumar said, adding that “Harsh is now in touch with the family through telephone”.
Kumar also said that Harsh had informed his family that he and the others had been arrested by the police on 12 January.
ThePrint called Harsh over WhatsApp on a number provided by one of his friends but the call didn’t connect. Replying to a text sent to him by ThePrint Friday, Harsh said the group had not been contacted by anyone from the Indian embassy so far and that they were in dire straits.
“We all just want to be safely rescued from here so that we can reach our homes,” he wrote.
Asked whether they were at the warfront or at a safe place, Harsh said they didn’t know where they had been kept but they were not in the middle of the action.
A friend of his, who didn’t want to be named, said Harsh wanted to settle down in Australia and had gone to Russia to create a travel history on his passport so that he could get a visa for the nation easily.
Karnal MP Sanjay Bhatia said he would take up the matter with the Ministry of External Affairs and make all efforts for the youth’s safe return.
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‘We realised later that we had been tricked’
In the video that was shared on social media by several people, including senior journalist Uma Sudhir, Harsh with six others standing behind him narrates how the group was duped into being “helpers” in the Russian army, given a brief training in arms and told they would be sent to the frontlines of Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine.
ThePrint hasn’t independently verified the video.
“We all came to Russia as tourists. Here, we met an agent who took us to Belarus for an excursion and once there, he started demanding money. When we said we didn’t have money, he left us on the highway. We didn’t know that we needed a visa to visit Belarus. We were caught by the police and handed over to the Russian army. The army kept us in custody for three or four days at an unknown place,” Harsh says in the video.
“Later, we were made to speak to a person who knew our language. He told us that we would be jailed for 10 years or we could sign a contract to become helpers in the army, doing jobs like cooking or driving. The contract was in their language and we couldn’t understand its contents but we signed it. We realised later that we had been tricked. They had recruited us into the Russian army,” he explains.
According to Harsh, the group was given training and then shifted to Ukraine. “Some of our companions have already been sent to the frontlines of war and we seven have been told that we too would be shifted to the warfront, where we will have to fight. We are not at all ready or willing to fight and most of us can’t even hold a gun properly. We appeal to the government of India to rescue us,” he adds.
On 26 February, the Ministry of External Affairs issued a statement on media reports about Indian nationals seeking discharge from the Russian army.
“We have seen some inaccurate reports in the media regarding Indians with the Russian army seeking help for discharge. Each and every such case brought to the attention of the Indian embassy in Moscow has been strongly taken up with the Russian authorities and those brought to the attention of the ministry have been taken up with the Russian embassy in New Delhi,” it said.
“Several Indians have already been discharged as a result. We remain committed, as a matter of top priority, to actively pursuing with the Russian authorities all the relevant cases of Indian nationals for an early discharge from the Russian army,” the statement further read.
In a media briefing on 29 February, ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said: “We have an understanding that 20-odd people are stuck. We are trying our level best for their early discharge… we’ve also told people not to venture into the war zone or get caught into situations which are difficult. We are in regular touch with the Russian authorities both here in New Delhi and in Moscow.”
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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