India urges citizens to stay away from offers to join Russian Army
India has taken up the recruitment of Indians with Russian authorities after reports emerged of men on student and business visas being deceived into joining the war in Ukraine
India on Thursday urged its citizens to stay away from offers to join the Russian Army and said it had taken up the recruitment of Indians with Russian authorities after reports emerged of men on student and business visas being deceived into joining units on the frontlines of the war in Ukraine.
The Indian government has repeatedly raised the issue of Indians being tricked into serving in the Russian Army with Russia’s top leadership, most recently during external affairs minister S Jaishankar’s visit to Moscow last month. Despite Russia’s assertion that it stopped recruiting Indians in its armed forces in April 2024, reports continue to come in of Indians serving with Russian formations fighting in Ukraine.
“We once again strongly urge all Indian nationals to stay away from any offers to join the Russian Army as this is a course fraught with danger,” external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in response to the reports of Indians being recruited recently into the Russian military.
The government has underlined on several occasions over the past year the “risks and dangers inherent in this course of action” and cautioned Indian citizens accordingly, Jaiswal said. “We have also taken up the matter with Russian authorities, both in Delhi and Moscow, asking that this practice be ended and that our nationals be released. We are also in touch with the families of the affected Indian citizens,” he said without giving details of how many Indian citizens had been recruited recently.
Reports suggested that more than a dozen Indian men, who had travelled to Russia on student and business visas, had been forced to join Russian Army units deployed in Selydove, a city in Ukraine’s Donetsk administrative division that was occupied by Russian forces in October 2024. Most of the men are from Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, and Haryana.
Some of the men were taken to the frontline of the war as recently as Wednesday. Some of them have told the media they were hired as construction workers and then tricked by an agent into joining the Russian Army. They have claimed they were taken in by promises of high salaries and were sent to an army camp, where they were provided basic training for 15 days before being sent to the front.
The reports suggested that some Indians were killed or reported missing recently in the region, though this could not be independently confirmed.
It was not immediately clear how many Indian nationals had been recruited in the Russian Army in recent months.
According to the external affairs ministry, 126 Indians were recruited by the Russian military in the past, and 12 were killed while fighting on the frontlines of the conflict in Ukraine. Ninety-six were discharged by Russian authorities, while another 16 are listed as missing.
During his visit to Moscow last month, Jaishankar said at a media briefing alongside his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, that he had raised the issue of Indians serving in the Russian Army. “While many have been released, there are still some pending cases and some missing persons. We hope that the Russian side will expeditiously resolve these matters,” he said.
