"I guess around 3,000 to 4,000 Nepalis joined the Russian army," Rai Bikash, the captured POW said, after estimating that he saw around 200 Nepalis with his own eyes during his short time in the Russian military.
According to reports, a top official in the Sri Lankan government stated that the government will send a delegation to Russia to investigate the fate of hundreds of nationals reportedly fighting in the war in Ukraine.
The Nepalese soldiers, assigned to military unit number 29328 of Russia's Armed Forces, are deserting due to heavy losses, non-payment of salaries, and commanders' abuse, "including executions for refusing to follow orders," Ukraine's military intelligence agency (HUR) said on May 1.
Russia increasingly involves foreign mercenaries from countries with a "difficult economic situation" in the all-out war in Ukraine, Petro Yatsenko, a spokesperson of Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, said on March 15 during the press conference in Kyiv.
The news came after multiple media reports said that Indian men who came to Russia for work or tourism were then coerced into joining the war against Ukraine.
Seven young men from the Indian states of Punjab and Haryana appealed to Indian authorities for help earlier this week in a video shared on the social platform X.
