New Delhi: At least 16 Indians remain missing in Russia for over a year, after being forced to join the military there last year. Some of the family members of those missing are set to travel to Moscow later this month to further inquire about the case.
In February, the government informed the Lok Sabha that 18 Indians were in Russia, of which 16 are missing. Of the remaining two, Jain T.K from Kerala, who was injured on the frontlines, returned in April. The other Indian has acquired Russian citizenship, said a person familiar with the matter.
Around 126 Indians joined the Russian Army to fight the war in Ukraine between the end of 2023 and early 2024. According to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), 96 of them have returned to India, while 12 were killed on the frontlines. Russian authorities have been unable to ascertain the location of 16 Indians for over a year.
The issue of Indians in the Russian armed forces has been raised at the highest levels, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi meeting Russian President Vladimir V. Putin twice in 2024—at the annual India-Russia Summit in July and on the margins of the BRICS Summit at Kazan in October.
Now, four family members of at least 14 of the missing Indians are set to travel to Moscow at the end of June for a month. They will be working with a local foundation and meet with Russian authorities to find out more about the status of the missing Indians.
“Four of us will be travelling to Moscow, along with the power of attorney for 10 of the other families. For the one and a half years, all we have been told is that our family members remain missing,” Jagdeep Kumar, one of the family members set to travel, told ThePrint.
His brother Mandeep Kumar from Phillaur in Punjab was promised a visa to Italy before he departed India in December 2023. The family paid Rs 31.40 lakh to an agent for Mandeep’s travel to Italy. However, rather than Italy, Mandeep landed up in Moscow and was signed up by the Russian Army. The family last spoke to him on 3 March, 2024.
“He was given 15 days of training to become a sniper in the Russian Army, before being sent to the frontlines. Mandeep has a handicap, which does not allow him to run, but he was sent to the frontlines,” Jagdeep told ThePrint.
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From UP, Punjab to J&K & Maharashtra
Families of at least 14 Indians held a protest at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar in the last week of May. Nine of them are from Uttar Pradesh, with the majority from Azamgarh district. Three are from Punjab, while one each is from Jammu and Kashmir and Maharashtra.
One of the missing from Punjab, according to a list curated by the families and seen by ThePrint, is Tejpal Singh, from Amritsar. Singh’s family also last spoke with him on 3 March last year, before he was taken to Tokmak city, in the Ukrainian province of Zaporizhzhia.
Russia has sought to annex Zaporizhzhia, along with the provinces of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Crimea since the current phase of open warfare began a little over three years ago.
Mandeep, on the other hand, was sent to Donetsk, after which his family lost all connection with him. The Russian Ministry of Defence confirmed last month that Arvind Kumar from Azamgarh district, one of the missing Indians, signed a contract on 17 January, 2024 to join the military in the Leningrad region. However, the military selection point for Leningrad region denied that other Indians, including Mandeep, signed contracts in the region for military service.
New Delhi has pushed Moscow to ensure that no other Indians are allowed to join the Russian armed forces. The number of Indians signing up to the Russian military has since been curbed. There have been no new cases of Indians intimating either the Embassy in Moscow or the MEA of their service in the Russian armed forces.
The Russia-Ukraine war has been ongoing since February 2022. In recent weeks, it has intensified, especially after Kyiv was able to destroy Russian strategic bombers through Operation Spiderweb. On Sunday, Russia is reported to have launched nearly 500 loitering munitions and missiles at Western Ukraine, in one of its largest such aerial attacks till date.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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