Indian Men In Ukraine War; Families Search For Those On The Frontline

Sonu Kumar and Aman Punjia grew up together in a tiny village of Madanheri in Haryana’s Hisar district. Born in 1994, Sonu did not live to see his 31st birthday— he died on the front lines of Russia’s war against Ukraine. When his body was sent back to India last month, it was unrecognisable due to the extent of the injuries. Aman’s family hasn’t heard from the 32-year-old since October 20, 2025.

These men are among 61 Indians currently fighting on the Russia-Ukraine war frontlines, says Jay Bhagwan, who has taken up the cause of bringing them back to India. “Two are dead that we know of for certain— Sonu from Hisar and Karmchand from Kethal,” he says. Among the others, at least 11 were flown back to India in November.

“The only way we could identify Sonu’s body was through the army identification number,” says Vikas Kumar, Sonu’s elder brother. Kumar is the oldest of three children in the Kumar household; Sonu was the youngest.

Staring at the blue army uniform that was sent back with Sonu’s body, Kumar looks hopeless. The uniform is intact, almost new. But the body that was sent back, the brother says, was missing a left leg and was already rotting. “It smelled, and it was bloated—it had been some time since he died,” says Kumar. The news of Sonu’s death reached his family in September, while the body came in November: “His commander, who is Russian, called… said he had died in a drone attack.”

The families of the other men say they have not heard anything from their kin for months. Aman’s family began searching for him on September 19, after Sonu’s family received the call.

“We have been taking chakkars of the Chief Minister’s office, of the embassies, of everywhere we could think of since we heard the news about Sonu,” says Ashish, Aman’s younger brother.

Aman and Sonu, childhood friends, had gone to Russia a year ago on study visas. “They had intended to study Russian while also working there,” Ashish says. The pair took on various odd jobs: Sonu worked in hotels, while Aman used to scan packages for a delivery service. The two lived together in Moscow, the families say.

After a year in Russia, when their visas were about to expire, the two friends were approached by a visa agent who promised them jobs as security guards that would pay around two lakhs a month, and a visa extension. All they had to do was sign a contract entirely in Russian. The pair had not picked up enough of the Soviet language to understand what was written, say the families.

Sonu was sent to training camp first, while Aman was still filing the documents for the visa extension. “Sonu called Aman and told him not to do it… he told him I am stuck here, and it is dangerous, so you don’t get stuck,” Ashish says. The man breaks down as he recalls that Aman told Sonu: “We came here together, and we will leave together.”

Indian officials say dozens of Indian citizens are fighting in the Russian army in the war against Ukraine. In 2025, the External Affairs Ministry confirmed 44 Indians still serving in the Russian army. Bhagwan says he has information on at least 61 men so far. In earlier disclosures, the government had said there were 127 Indians in the Russian army of whom 98 have been discharged after diplomatic pressure, and 13 remain under contract. Twelve of those 13 were, at that time, said to be “missing.”

These figures represent a worrying trend of young Indians lured into Russia’s military.

Pattern of Trafficking For the Russian Army

The pattern for Sonu, Aman, and others is the same. The men go to Russia on a study or work visa. When the visa is about to expire, an agent—either on social media or in person—approaches them with a promise of studying or a job, such as building bunkers or cooking. When their visas are about to expire, the agents approach the men with a counteroffer: take a job as a security guard and get a visa extension. They are made to sign contracts written in Russian, and before they know it, they find themselves in a 15-day army training camp and then sent to the frontlines of the Russia-Ukraine war.

In other cases, in states such as Punjab, Tamil Nadu, and Jammu and Kashmir, men are offered fake jobs or university placements in Russia. When they reach the Soviet country, their passports and phones are confiscated, and they are recruited into the frontlines.

Thirty-four-year-old Hira Singh wanted to provide for his wife and two small children. Unable to get a job in Punjab, he applied for a Russian visa through one such agent and, he thought, got a job as a construction worker and cook. “When he left, he told us I am going to build bunkers and do odd-jobs… nothing in the frontlines,” his wife, Navdeep Kaur, says.

But as soon as Singh landed in Russia in August this year, his cell phone and his passport were confiscated. “He would call me from different numbers from time to time, and he would tell me Don’t call back, wait for me to call you,” Kaur says.

Then in September, Singh called his wife and said, “We are being sent to the frontlines.” She was worried, but her husband told her the work would not be of fighting; he would be doing the same odd jobs as before. Kaur has not heard from her husband since.

“He said if I can, I will call you. But I have not heard from him since,” says Kaur.

Foreign Fighters in the Russian Army

According to reports from The Wire and Al Jazeera, Russia has sent over 18,000 foreign fighters from 128 countries to Ukraine between 2022 and 2025. A large number of these foreign fighters are men from Asia and Africa. Ukraine’s foreign minister had said that there were about 1,436 fighters from 36 African countries in Russia’s ranks. Ukraine had earlier warned that foreign fighters are often used as “cannon fodder,” claiming most of such recruits are killed within weeks, equating their one-year contracts to a “death sentence.”

There are also around 6,600 recruits from former Soviet states such as Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and another 10,000 from Asian countries, including India. As of mid-2025, roughly 3,400 of these foreign contracted fighters were confirmed dead, with thousands more having been wounded or captured.

Many governments have publicised cases of their nationals being trafficked into Russia’s war. South Africa reported distress calls from 17 young men in Donbas who say they were lured by promises of jobs. Kenya’s president publicly appealed to Ukraine’s leaders over hundreds of Kenyans “illegally recruited” for the war. Nepal and Sri Lanka have also warned their citizens to avoid dubious Russian recruitment schemes. The victims range from skilled workers to students. India, too, cautioned its citizens that any Indian signing up for Russian service does so at their own peril.

Brown Bodies on the Frontline: History Repeats Itself?

Historically, there have been previous instances of foreign enlistment and conscription in European conflicts. The colonial empires always conscripted native populations to fight in wars, including World War II. The Soviet Army, too, recruited non-Russian volunteers from allied countries.

After WWII, the Geneva Conventions forbade mercenaries, but did not outlaw the use of foreign contracted soldiers.

Missing, or Dead: Families of Indians in the Russian Army hang in limbo

Aman’s family heard from him last on October 20, when he called for choti Diwali. At that time, he told his uncle Jay Narayan Purab that there were six people in his bunker on the frontlines. “’Three of them are dead,’ he told me,” says Purab.

In a video that Aman sent to his family in October, the young man is in a hole in the ground and badly injured. He describes how he was conned into taking a security guard job, only to be shuttled to the front lines on August 25, 2025. “Every day, people die in front of me; bombs are falling everywhere around me,” he says.

Photos shared by Aman show his legs and feet are wrapped loosely, but the bandages are stained red with blood. “He told us he was injured in a drone attack,” says Purab. At that time, Aman had told his family that the Russians were taking him off the frontline so he could be treated by a doctor specialist. “But then, when he called us on choti Diwali, he said even the doctor who was supposed to treat me is dead,” recalls Purab.

The families of these men are distraught. Facing silence from the Russians and the Indian authorities, they don’t know what to do.

“Everything has stopped for us: no eating, can't laugh, can't cry either because we don't know anything—is he alive, is he ok, is he dead? We are only suffering,” says Purab.