The Brown soldiers on the Russian frontline

‘Treated like dogs.’

These were the words used by Ganesh to describe the conditions that Nepalis fighting in Donetsk were being subjected to. Ganesh, a Nepali man fortunate to have made it back home from the Russian frontline, is just one of the thousands of South Asians to have been lured into the Russian army to fight in the ongoing war in Ukraine. Over the months, nationals from India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka have, either wittingly or unwittingly, made the journey to Russia to risk their lives for a few extra thousand rupees.

This article examines the broad socio-economic conditions that drive these nationals to sign up in the Russian army, the overt and more covert ways they are recruited into the army, what Russia could hope to achieve from their involvement, and the pressures being mounted by the respective national governments on Russia to ensure their nationals’ safety, if not safe return.

The Socio-Economic Incentive:

The reasons these South Asian nationals are fighting in the war in Ukraine are predominantly economic.

Sri Lanka’s economic crisis led to shortages in food, fuel, and medical supply. One Sri Lankan recruit told Al Jazeera that he would rather die fighting in Russia than face the economic hardships back home. Fleeing these economic hardships at home seem all the more lucrative when one comes across the advertised salary of $4000 per month to fight in the Russian army. In Nepal, this sum of money is approximately four-fold the annual Per Capita Income, and is a great temptation for Nepalis who are still grappling with the effects of their country’s first economic recession in six decades.  In India, where the economy is relatively more stable than its South Asian neighbours, the advertised wages to work in Russia as a labourer or porter– jobs where there isn’t a very high risk to one’s life- are still much higher than what Indian nationals would earn back home.

Recruitment:

David Moothappan, a 23 year old man from the Indian state of Kerala, was enticed by the prospect of earning $2200 a month while working as a security guard in Russia. Instead, a few weeks after making the journey, he found himself surrounded by torn limbs and corpses, right in the centre of the Russian warzone. With the help of other Indians, Moothappan managed to make it to the Indian Embassy in Moscow, from where he managed to safely return home. But not many have been as fortunate as him. Hemil Mangukiya, who left his family in Surat to join the Russian army as a helper, was killed by a missile attack in Ukraine in late February, and is just one of the dozen South Asian recruits to have been killed in the warzone.  

Unofficial media reports and certain analysts claim there are thousands of Nepalis and hundreds of Indians and Sri Lankans currently engaged in the war effort, mostly on the Russian side. Reports also claim that at least five Sri Lankans, twelve Nepalis, and two Indians have died in the fighting. While many nationals from these nations willingly signed up for the war effort, utilizing a tourist visa to enter Russia, many others never knew what they were getting into. While there wasn’t a fixed modus operandi that was used to hoodwink South Asian recruits, each person’s story and journey being unique to him, travel agents featured prominently in many tales. According to Ganesh, Youtube and TikTok videos, that showed smartly clad South Asian soldiers training with ‘fancy guns’ in Russia, were used to lure prospective recruits from India and Nepal. These social media handles- that advertise jobs not just to become soldiers in the Russian army, but also for relatively safer opportunities like that of a helper or porter or security guard-  are operated by travel agents who extort thousands of dollars from recruits to facilitate their journey to Russia. Led by promises of better pay, and potentially even Russian citizenship, many of these recruits are then made to sign contracts drafted in Russian, after which they are dispatched to training camps and from there to the frontlines. Agents also lure recruits by promising them admissions into Russian universities, or fee discounts at these universities for serving in the army.

Possible Russian motivations:

Reports have emerged of South Asian soldiers- who have no fluency in Russian and hardly any military training- being dispatched, before their Russian counterparts, to the frontlines. And this raises the question: Why, years after the end of colonialism, are South Asians still considered more expendable than white soldiers in a war that does not directly concern them? While brown soldiers, subjugated by imperial governments, were commonplace on the frontlines of the two World Wars, one would assume we are now past that age. The answer, at least on the surface, and unlike previously, lies away from the question of race. Russia’s recruitment of South Asian soldiers is majorly a matter of race’s favourite cousin: money. Cheap soldiers, expendable soldiers: just like an MNC operating a sweatshop in Bangladesh, Pakistan, or India.

 Different findings estimate that thirty to forty percent of the Russian population is in favour of the war in Ukraine, with many viewing it as a defence against Western encroachment into Russia’s sphere of influence. These findings bode well for Putin, for whom, in the absence of a strong political rival, a popular revolt seems like the biggest threat to his grip on Russia’s presidency.  And, while a large number of Russian soldiers- between 450,000 and 470,000–  are engaged in Ukraine,  the chances of a popular revolt seem unlikely if a media narrative is spun that shows Russians to not be the first ones expended on the frontlines. Another narrative, where foreign soldiers are feeling so passionately about the Russian cause that they are willing to risk their lives and make the arduous journey to the warzone, could also instil patriotism among the Russian populace, tempting them to sign up to the army.

What does the future hold?

Once in the warzone, getting out is proving extremely difficult for South Asian soldiers, with Ganesh reporting that he and six other recruits were badly beaten by Russian soldiers when they tried to flee from the army. On paper, national governments are asking Russia to repatriate their citizens. Nepal has banned its citizens from travelling to Russia or Ukraine for work. A spokesperson from India’s Ministry of External Affairs has said that India has ‘taken up’ the matter with the Russian government and has asked for an early discharge of Indian nationals. While Sri Lanka has sought information on its nationals who have joined the Russian army.

South Asian soldiers like Moothappan, who escaped the frontlines and made it to their embassies, are able to get a safe route back home. But there is insufficient news on the others still trapped, still risking their lives after being duped by agents. How much of an effort national governments are making to get them back can only be speculated.

India’s Central Bureau of Investigation has raided seven travel agencies that were purportedly involved in the trafficking of migrants to Russia. And in Nepal, protests are underway as relatives seek to claim the bodies of their loved ones, demanding compensation from Russia for the deaths. But many still seek the repatriation of family members. Many still fight in the warzone. How many deaths have gone unreported? We don’t know. Dying in a war, irrespective of loyalties, is tragic. Dying in a war that you don’t want to fight in is just a little worse. And most terribly, as if poverty is in itself not an odyssey, it is the poor and desperate who remain trapped in Russia, praying for a way out. South Asian governments need to take a more tangible stand to demand the return of their nationals.