Indian authorities said Thursday evening that they had arrested members of a network of
“traffickers”
suspected of having recruited and sent Indian citizens to fight in Ukraine for the Russian army.
Two years after Russia's invasion of Ukraine began, tens of thousands of troops have been killed and Moscow is seeking to conscript soldiers from around the world.
In February, several Indian soldiers told AFP that they had agreed to enlist in exchange for attractive salaries and a Russian passport.
Investigators from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raided 13 localities on Thursday and arrested
“several suspects”
for questioning, according to a statement released in the evening.
“These traffickers operated as an organized network and attracted Indian nationals through social networks such as Youtube (...) and through their local contacts/agents to offer them very well-paid jobs in Russia
,” he adds.
“The Indian nationals who were victims of this trafficking were trained to fight on the front and deployed to the battlefield between Russia and Ukraine against their will
,” the statement continued.
This government agency says it has identified
“around 35 cases”
where Indian nationals were sent to Russia to fight in Ukraine without their knowledge.
Several Indians recruited
The Indian Foreign Ministry had previously indicated that around 20 Indians were
“stuck”
in the Russian army, saying it was working to ensure that these men were released from their obligations.
The CBI mentioned the names of four people suspected of being involved in this network of
"traffickers"
, including that of Pheasant Khan, a recruitment agent based in Dubai who had told AFP that he had helped 16 Indian nationals to surrender in Russia between November and December 2023. He said he was
“surprised”
to learn that recruits had had to handle weapons and then
“decided to put an end to the recruitment process”
.
Several Indians recruited in this way for work which was only to be of
"support"
to the Russian army told AFP that they had, once enlisted, been trained in the use of weapons before being sent to the front in Ukraine.
India, an old ally of Moscow, refused to explicitly condemn the invasion of Ukraine.