Why Indian men are fighting for Russia in Ukraine

Earlier this year, Urgen Tamang spent weeks being taken from one Russian military training camp to another. 

The 47-year-old Indian national was being taught how to fire weapons. Tamang was among the foreign mercenaries, or soldiers for hire, fighting for Russia in its war against Ukraine. 

But Tamang hadn’t signed up to be a part of Russia’s war — he was tricked into joining it. 

“They’re going to take me to the front line in a few days to fight against Ukraine,” Tamang said into a selfie camera as he recorded a video, a last-ditch effort to save himself. “I am pleading with the Indian government, please save me.”

Tamang is not alone. Ninety-one Indians have been duped into joining the Russian army, according to the Indian government. These men, as well as thousands of others from Nepal and Sri Lanka, went to Russia in search of greener pastures. Their stories reveal a human trafficking network that’s been feeding off of economic despair in South Asia. 

Tamang’s video ended up saving his life, but others haven’t been so lucky. Eight Indians and over 40 Nepalese have died fighting on Russia’s side.

An opportunity and a trap

In Surat, western India, Ashwin Mangukiya sat on the floor of his small warehouse surrounded by bundles of women’s clothes. His eldest son, Hemil Mangukiya, also used to work in the textile business before he stumbled on a YouTube video last year about a work opportunity in Russia. 

“The job was to be a helper in the Russian army,” Ashwin Mangukiya said, which essentially meant loading up trucks full of food or transporting other supplies. “We were told it would not involve any fighting or going to the battlefield.”

At first, Ashwin Mangukiya was nervous about sending the 23-year-old to Russia, but his son insisted. He was promised a salary five times what he was earning in India, and Russian citizenship within six months. 

Ashwin Mangukiya eventually agreed and traveled to Mumbai to drop off his son. There, the recruitment agents again assured him that the job was safe.

Within weeks of landing in Russia, the real work that Hemil Mangukiya had signed up for became clear — he was headed for the front line. 

Ashwin Mangukiya scrolled through his phone gallery to show photos that Hemil Mangukiya had sent him posing in an airport terminal and standing in a wooded area wearing a military uniform. In one picture, he’s carrying a big gun. These were some of his last photos — in February, Hemil Mangukiya was killed in a Ukrainian drone strike. 

The news of Hemil Mangukiya’s death came as a shock to his family who had been in regular touch with him, trying to figure out how to get him back safely. 

“I should have never let him go,” his father said.

Not enough jobs

These days, Ashwin Mangukiya said, he feels more angry than sad. He blames the traffickers posing as recruitment agents who misled his son, but also the economic circumstances that led his son to look for work abroad.

“Youngsters today study and work hard, but they don’t find well-paying jobs in India, so what will they do?” he said.

India has a disproportionate number of young people looking for work — more than half of Indians are under 30. But economists say India has not been able to create enough jobs for its growing young population. The jobs that are available are often unstable, said labor rights activist Chandan Kumar.

“You can’t even imagine the level of precarity. When I say ‘precarity,’ it includes working conditions, it includes the wages, includes access to social security,” Kumar said, adding that even after 14-hour work days, minimum wages are often not guaranteed, let alone living wages.

As a result, Indians are seeking better opportunities overseas — even if that means taking huge risks. Thousands of Indians have lined up for blue-collar jobs in Israel, despite the escalating conflict in the Middle East. 

Kumar appeals to Indians to avoid taking up jobs in conflict-ridden countries, however well-paying they may seem.

“I would sincerely, humbly with the folded hand, encourage my brothers and sisters not to travel in these countries and get a job,” Kumar said. “Because if Indian workers die, who will take the responsibility?”

Fraudulent agents are preying on economic insecurity in India, and job scams are on the rise. Another human trafficking racket emerged recently in Cambodia where thousands of Indians were lured there under the pretense of well-paying jobs, but were forced to commit cybercrimes; 250 of them have been rescued so far. 

Indian law enforcement has arrested four people in connection to the Russian army job scam and dozens of Indians have returned in recent months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin. But 20 Indians are yet to return from Russia, the Indian government said in late October.