"I didn't realize that I would be sent to the front so soon and how terrible the situation would be."
Ramachandra Khadka/Screenshot, CNN
About 15,000 Nepalese have joined the Russian army, which is luring foreign fighters to join its ranks for the benefit of the war in Ukraine - according to a CNN investigation, which was based on a long list of sources.
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Moscow, which needs "cheap" manpower on the bloody fronts in Ukraine, formulated an incentive package last year that includes a monthly salary of at least $2,000, in addition to a fast track to obtaining Russian citizenship.
The Nepali passport is among the worst in the world in terms of global mobility, even more so than North Korea's, according to an index by global citizenship and residency consultancy Henley & Partners.
In addition, the Himalayan country is among the poorest in the world.
According to the World Bank, its GDP per capita in 2022 was just $1,336.
One of the Nepalese who was lured by Russia's offer is 37-year-old Ramachandra Khadka, who spoke to CNN about his ordeal. Standing in front of a temple in the heart of the capital Kathmandu, he He prayed for his countrymen fighting on the battlefields of Ukraine. As the bells rang and the sweet smell of incense filled the air, he lit candles and placed flowers. All he wanted was for his comrades to survive the brutal war.
He recently returned to his country following his injury at the front. He witnessed shocking sights and said that He regrets the decision to serve the Kremlin as a mercenary.
The war in Ukraine was not the first battle in which Hadaka participated. He was among the ranks of the Maoist rebels in Nepal, who waged a bloody civil war with the security forces for about a decade starting in the mid-1990s. Served in Afghanistan when hired by a military contractor to assist NATO forces in the country.
He thought he had already seen everything in his life - bloodshed, death and suffering.
However, nearly 17 years after the end of the Maoist rebellion in his country, and with no hope of work, he decided to join the Russian army for money.
"I didn't join the Russian army for fun. I had no job opportunities in Nepal. But looking back, it wasn't the right decision. I didn't realize that I would be sent to the front so soon and how terrible the situation would be," he said.
He arrived in Moscow in September last year.
He said that after just two weeks of training, he was sent to the front lines in Bakhmut - a town in eastern Ukraine that has seen some of the heaviest fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces - with a gun and a basic kit.
"There is not one centimeter of land in Bakhmut that has not been damaged by the bombings. All the trees, bushes and greenery, everything is gone. Most of the houses have been destroyed. The situation there is so shocking that it makes you want to cry," he recalled.
Khadaka was stationed in Bakhmut twice and stayed there for a total of one month.
In his second deployment, he was hit by a bullet in the thigh.
After being rescued and evacuated a few hundred meters from the front line, he was hit by shrapnel from a cluster bomb.
"I still have a headache when I think about the horrible sights I saw in the war zone," he said.
Officially, the Nepalese government admits only about 200 civilians who went to fight Russia/Reuters
The Nepalese government has said that about 200 of its citizens are fighting for the Russian army and that at least 13 Nepalis have been killed in the war zone.
But lawmakers and human rights activists in Nepal say these official estimates underestimate the true numbers.
Prominent Nepali lawmaker from the opposition and former foreign minister, Bimala Rai Paudial, told the upper house of parliament in the province today (Thursday) that between 14,000 and 15,000 Nepalis are fighting on the front, citing testimonies from men who have returned from the war zone, and called on the Russian authorities to provide the data .
"The Russian government must have data of how many foreign fighters have joined the Russian army and how many Nepalis are fighting for Russia," she said.
Four Nepalese fighters are currently being held as prisoners of war by Ukraine, according to Nepal's foreign ministry.
The Russian Foreign Ministry did not respond to CNN's questions about the number of Nepalis recruited into the Russian army and how many of them have been killed so far.
Keetu Bhandari, a politician and social activist from Kathmandu, became the leader of a group of family members of Nepalese men fighting in Russia.
She said about 2,000 families have contacted her in recent weeks asking for help to contact their missing loved ones or to bring those who are still in touch back home to the small South Asian country.
Hundreds of families say their relatives in Russia have not been in touch for many weeks or months, according to Bhandri.
"There is not one centimeter of land in Bakhmut that has not been damaged by the bombings. All the trees, bushes and greenery, everything is gone. Most of the houses have been destroyed. The situation there is so shocking that it makes you want to cry."
Januka Sonar's husband went to Russia three months ago to join the army.
He has not been in contact with his family in Nepal for two and a half months.
The last time Sonar spoke to her husband, she told CNN, he said the Russian military was moving him to another location and that they would not allow him to take his cell phone with him.
He didn't tell her where he was going.
"I'm very worried. I don't know what happened to him. He might get injured, and I wonder if they'll get his phone back in the end. I'm scared. I try not to think about the worst," she said.
Sonar said that her husband, the only breadwinner in the house, who used to work making jewelry and silver tools, enlisted in the Russian army solely for money - to build a better life for the family.
She lives with their two children in a town on the outskirts of Kathmandu.
His commander said that he was killed, but the body was not returned.
Shukra Tameng, a Nepalese soldier, during his training in Russia/screenshot, CNN
CNN met her, along with other family members of civilians fighting with Russia, outside Nepal's ruling Communist Party headquarters in the capital to try to pressure top politicians to return their loved ones.
"If the worst happens to him, it will be worse than going to hell for us. We have no future for the rest of our lives," she said.
Sonar broke down in tears as she shared how she was unable to explain to her children where their father was.
"They say: 'Where is our father, mother? All the fathers of our friends who went to work abroad have returned.
When is our father coming back?
We want to talk to our father just once.'"
She is desperate for help from the authorities. "We just want information - from our government or the Russian government.
Just let them tell us about his condition.
Let them see if they can save him.
If they want to keep him there, at least we want to know how he is and talk to him," she said.
Bodhi Maya Tameng, who was also present at the gathering, received a phone call in late January from a Russian number after midnight. She thought her husband, Shukra Tameng - a former soldier in the Nepalese army who fought Now with Russia - he is the person making the call.
It was someone else. A Nepali commander leading a unit at the front told her that her husband had been killed in the fighting.
"I was speechless or unable to think, I was hoping it was a prank," she said. She has not received confirmation of his death from the Nepalese government or from the Russian government. "I just need official proof of his condition - no matter if it's good or bad news."
"If the worst happens to him, it will be worse than going to hell for us"/Reuters
After analyzing the TikTok profiles of ten Nepalis who had traveled to Russia to join the army, CNN used satellite images to locate them at the Avant-garde training center, a military academy outside Moscow.
The academy was designed as a military academy for youth and describes itself as a "patriotic education" center.
But it was converted again into an academy for training foreign mercenaries entering the ranks of the Russian army.
Here Hedaka received his short training.
"There they teach you to assemble and shoot guns," explained Shisher Bishwakarma, a Nepali soldier who documented his journey to Russia and life in the training camp on YouTube.
A video posted on social media showed an indoor wrestling hall being converted into a training area for familiarization with small arms such as the Kalashnikov, while the old flag of the Moscow region appeared to have been changed to the colors of the Russian Ministry of Defense.
A Nepali soldier serving in Russia, who asked to remain anonymous for security reasons, told CNN that he trained on rocket launchers, bombs, machine guns, drones and tanks while at the academy. The
soldier described his fellow cadets at the academy as coming from all over the "global south", including Afghans, Indians, Congolese and Egyptians Photos from the academy posted on social media show what appear to be dozens of soldiers from South Asia with Russian instructors.
"Guys, we've arrived at drone class"
After their training at the Vanguard, CNN located at least two soldiers at a nearby secondary base known as the Albino Polygon.
At a mechanized infantry training compound, located with the help of the Bellingcat Discord community, a handful of South Asian soldiers in full combat gear appear to be training alongside armored vehicles and heavy weapons, including packing equipment bags and organizing into larger units among the Russian soldiers.
In one of Bishwakarma's videos, Drones fly over the center of the Avant-Garde Academy complex as he says, "Now, guys, we've come to drone class." "We don't understand Russian, but they played Russian movies in our waiting room for us to watch," he explains
. The Russians stated that they did not speak Russian, but explained that the guides tried to deal with it by training them in English.
This language barrier played a big role in the deaths of many Nepalese on the front, said Khadka, the former fighter. "Sometimes you don't even understand where you are supposed to go or how to get there," he said. Khadka said that he used to communicate with Russian officers using a voice translation application - and many times only using hand signals.
"The Nepalis and other foreign fighters are the ones actually fighting at the front of the war zones. The Russians are a few hundred meters back as a supporting force"
Several Nepali fighters who returned and spoke to CNN accused Russia of using them as cannon fodder in the war.
"The Nepalis and other foreign fighters are the ones actually fighting at the front of the war zones. The Russians are a few hundred meters back as a supporting force," said Suman Tameng, who returned from Russia last week.
"Some of my friends suffered violence from the Russian commander when they tried to express their concerns," 39-year-old Tameng recalled.
He also said that the Ukrainians were attacking their position with drones, which were not in his unit.
He blamed the lack of modern weapons for their losses.
Some of the fighters claim that they enlisted to serve in the Russian army for the money, but do not support the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
"It is not right to invade another country. Everyone has the right to live. All countries should respect the sovereignty of another country. It is not right that people from any country should be killed in such a horrific way. It is not right that tens of thousands of people should die for the sake of a few," he said Khadka
According to estimates, each year about 400 thousand people enter the Nepalese labor market with limited skills and opportunities.
The unemployment rate reaches 19.2% among 15 to 29 year olds, a figure that highlights the obstacle facing the young population looking for employment.
Nepalese who want to enlist in the Russian army initially come to Russia with a tourist visa.
Most of those quoted in the article said that they passed through the United Arab Emirates or India.
After landing in Moscow, they arrive at a recruitment center, where a physical examination is carried out.
"The recruiters are very happy when the Nepalese arrive," said a former fighter.
After they sign a one-year contract, a Russian bank account is opened for them, where a monthly salary of at least $2,000 is deposited.
Many fighters say that they were also given bonuses - and the longer they stay at the front, the more bonuses they get.
Some say they have earned up to $4,000 a month.
Some of the Nepalese who fought for Russia said they received only brief training before being sent into battle.
Binoj Basniat, a former general in the Nepalese army who now works as a strategic analyst, said this short training "shows the desperation of the Russian government and their need for front-line manpower".
A Nepali who recently left Russia after staying there for three months, and identified himself under the pseudonym Ram Sharma for his safety, told CNN that he does not know how to withdraw the money he still has in a Russian bank account, like many other Nepalis who fled Russia before their contract ended.
"After I escaped from the military camp, it took me three days to get to Moscow. I was afraid that if I went to the bank to withdraw the money, I would risk being caught," he said.
"I can access my bank account on my phone, but I don't know if that money can be transferred abroad."
Sharma, a retired Nepalese police officer, was working as a security guard at a hotel in Dubai when a Nepalese agent in Kathmandu contacted him about the terms Russia was offering foreigners to join its army. Sharma earned about $450 a month in Dubai and was immediately tempted by the offer.
"After you see horrific sights on the front, your friends dying next to you, you realize that the chances of survival are very slim.
Then you realize that the money is not worth it.
That's why I ran away," he said.
According to police, agents in Nepal charge between $5,000 and $7,000 to arrange a tourist visa for recruits through a third country.
The unemployment rate in Nepal reaches more than 15%/Reuters
The Nepalese government now bans its citizens from traveling to Russia for work, and has imposed stricter requirements on those trying to travel to countries such as the United Arab Emirates on a tourist visa.
In December, Nepal's foreign ministry called on Russia to stop recruiting Nepali citizens and send home the bodies of war dead.
"We are very concerned that Russia recruited our citizens and sent them to war zones in vulnerable situations," said Nepali Foreign Minister N.P.
Saud in an interview with CNN.
The minister said the Russian deputy foreign minister had assured him last month that "they will sort it out" regarding Nepal's concerns, but admitted that Moscow had not taken any steps so far.
"We have no information that Russia is doing anything," he said, stressing that Moscow should "respect Nepal's position."
"We have a traditional treaty with several countries to recruit our citizens into the army of those countries," he explained.
"But we don't have such a treaty with Russia for this kind of military or security mobilization."
The minister said that he asked to go to Moscow to discuss the issue, but he is waiting for an invitation from the Russian government.
Saud also said that Nepal is in talks with Ukrainian officials regarding the release of the four Nepalese prisoners captured by the Ukrainian forces.
He said that Ukraine has several "reservations" and "legal questions" that the Nepalese government is working to address.
It is unclear whether there will be any legal consequences against people who violated the Nepalese government's ban on traveling to Russia for work or those participating in the fighting in Ukraine.
"I'm done fighting wars"
Last month, police in Kathmandu said they had broken up a recruitment ring that led to the arrest of 18 people.
She raided several hotels where they were staying and confiscated dozens of passports and several hundred thousand Nepalese rupees.
Despite this, Nepalis continue to come to Russia.
Sharma, the same person who recently returned to the country, said that he met some of his countrymen in Moscow who had just arrived there and were looking for ways to enlist in the army.
Kathmandu police chief Bhupendra Bahadur Khatri said the rate of Nepalis arriving in a third country on a visit visa to eventually fly to Russia has slowed, but not completely stopped.
"We are receiving intelligence that some of these agents are still active in recruiting Nepalis. We have uncovered some of their covert activities, and our investigation is ongoing," Khatri said.
Basniat, the former general, blames political instability and rising unemployment in Nepal as a major factor driving Nepalis to seek dangerous employment in Russia.
More than 15% of its residents live below the poverty line and its unemployment rate in 2022 was 11.1%, according to the World Bank, compared to 10.6% in 2019, before the corona epidemic.
Tens of thousands of Nepalis travel to the Gulf countries for work every year, and remittances back to their country account for almost 23% of the country's GDP. 70% of the country's workforce is employed in the informal sector, so they are exposed to increased job insecurity and entitled to limited rights.
Khadka also plans to travel to the East High school as a migrant worker after he recovers from his battlefield injuries. "I want to do farming in Nepal, but it's almost impossible for me to take a loan.
I am looking to travel to one of the gulf countries.
I am done participating in wars," he said.
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