Mohammed Asfan’s family never dreamed he would wind up participating in the Ukraine war, much less die there, when he travelled from Hyderabad, India to Russia to work as a “helper” in the army.

Asfan is one of several Indian men who, according to their relatives, were coerced into fighting at the front against their will after being enticed to Russia by the promise of lucrative employment prospects.

According to India’s foreign ministry, each and every one of these cases that have come to their notice has been “strongly taken up.”

“We have an understanding that something like 20-odd people are stuck, we are trying our level best for their early discharge,” Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said last week.

There were no comments available from the Russian foreign ministry.

Asfan, a former manager of a clothes store, was lured to Russia by a video on YouTube that offered a permanent employment and residence after six months. He left behind his wife and their two young children.

“He called us from the Ukraine border to tell us his passport had been seized and he was being made to fight…he asked for help but by then he was already stuck,” his brother, Imran, said, speaking to Reuters a day after being informed of Asfan’s death.

In a post on X, the Indian embassy in Russia stated that attempts were on to repatriate his body to India.

In December, Hemil Mangukiya, a 23-year-old Gujarati embroiderer, was drawn to Russia by a comparable YouTube recruitment video.

“Hemil was told he would work as a helper in the army and would be trained for three months, but after reaching (Russia) he realized he was being trained to fight,” his father Ashwin Mangukiya told Reuters on Thursday.

Two days after Hemil was slain, on February 23, the family received a call from another Indian man who was fighting by him informing them of Hemil’s passing.

The father stated, “We are still waiting on his body to arrive so we can perform his last rites.”

In recordings that have gone viral on social media, seven other men have asked for New Delhi’s assistance in leaving Russia. They claim that although they were there on tourist visas, they were pressured to enlist in the army or risk being imprisoned for ten years, according to local media.

There were no comments on the videos from India’s foreign ministry.

In the worst land conflict in Europe since World War Two, Russia invaded neighbouring Ukraine in February 2022, claiming tens of thousands of lives on both sides in what Moscow refers to as a “special military operation.”

(Adapted from Reuters.com)

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