New Delhi: An Indian man serving in the Russian army has said he was ordered to fight on the frontlines of the Ukraine war shortly after Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed the discharge of Indians from the Russian military in Moscow, the Indian Express has reported.
According to the newspaper, Gagandeep Singh, who hails from Gurdaspur in Punjab, was told there were no orders yet for his release.
“After PM Modi went back, now the whole unit is going to the frontline, and I have also been told to join the unit,” Singh told IE, adding that he was earlier told he and other serving Indians would be sent back home.
He also said that some Indians he knew were already on the frontline – where one Indian soldier described conditions as being “horrific” – and that the Russians were “sending maximum force to the frontline”.
IE cited Singh as saying he did not join the Russian military on his own accord. He said he went to Russia to bolster his travel history in an attempt to qualify for work in the UK, but was handed over to the Russian military when he was found without a visa on a trip to Belarus.
Singh is among several Indians who were reportedly deceived and coerced into fighting for the Russian military. Some of them reached Russia to work in minor security roles but said they were forced to fight in active combat areas.
At least four Indian citizens working with the Russian side are reported to have been killed on the frontlines.
During his two-day visit to Moscow, Modi “strongly raised” the issue, foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra said, adding that the “Russian side promised [the] early discharge of all Indian nationals from the service of the Russian army”.
Kwatra later said during the same press conference that there was “a sense of promise from the Russian side” on the early release of Indians remaining in their army, whose numbers he pegged at up to 40.
“Now the two systems will work on it and see how exactly and how expeditiously we can get them back into the country,” he continued to say.
There has been no official announcement from the Russian government of a commitment to expeditiously release serving Indians.
Russian ambassador to India Denis Alipov also implied there was no commitment, stating that Moscow was “very open to dialogue on this particular issue”.
Alipov insisted the Russian government was not involved. “We have never recruited and do not recruit Indians in the Russian army. This particular problem is a problem involving those agencies, mediators and shoddy people who misled Indian nationals in the first place”.
