India previously requested Russian assistance to repatriate nationals lured to the conflict zone
Thirty-five Indian nationals who fought in the Ukraine conflict alongside the Russian Army have returned home since Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised the issue during his visit to Moscow in July, New Delhi confirmed on Thursday.
Speaking at a media briefing in the Indian capital, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said 45 Indians in total have been discharged from the Russian military, with ten of them returning before Modi’s visit to Russia. Efforts are ongoing to secure release of around 50 more people, he added.
In August, Indian Foreign Minister Subhrahmanyam Jaishankar said that 91 Indian nationals had been recruited into the Russian Army over the previous nine months, eight of whom had died.
“[The] prime minister [during his visit to Moscow] got President [Vladimir] Putin’s assurance that any Indian national who is in the service of the Russian Army will be discharged and released,” the minister said at the time.
Indians were being lured to Russia by human traffickers who offered them lucrative jobs, according to multiple reports in Indian media, as well as statements by New Delhi’s primary investigative agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The CBI said in March that it had opened a criminal case against 19 individuals and entities for their alleged role in recruiting Indians, and had made several arrests.
Russia has maintained that it has been in contact with Indian authorities on the issue through diplomatic and other channels. In June, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova clarified that officials in Moscow were in no way involved in recruiting Indian nationals to fight alongside the Russian Army.
After Modi raised the matter with Putin in Moscow, Roman Babushkin, deputy chief of mission at the Russian Embassy in New Delhi, told journalists that Russia and India were “on the same side” about repatriating Indian citizens “as quickly as possible.”
While stressing the importance of cracking down on human traffickers, Babushkin explained that the Russian military does not “lack soldiers” and does not proactively recruit foreign fighters. Some Indians identified in the conflict zone also went there “for purely commercial reasons,” Babushkin asserted. “In order to earn money, to get some more advantages and more benefits, including facilitated Russian citizenship,” he explained.
