New Delhi: The number of Indian nationals serving in the Russian army has surged to 44, up from 27 in September, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Friday. New Delhi has once again urged Moscow to release the Indians and to halt the recruitment of Indian citizens into its military ranks.
At the weekly media briefing, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal confirmed that several Indians had been enlisted by Russian military units in recent months.
“As per our understanding, there are 44 Indian nationals presently serving in the Russian army,” Jaiswal said. “We have once again taken up the matter with the Russian authorities to have them released at the earliest, as also to put an end to this practice.”
He added that the government remains in contact with both Russian authorities and the families of those affected. “We are in touch with the Russian side as well as with the families of these people, and we continue to keep them updated on developments,” he said.
Reiterating the government’s advisory against joining the Russian military, Jaiswal warned that such recruitment was “fraught with danger to life.”
“We have said this many times. Despite repeated advisories, people continue to enlist,” he said, noting that Indian law enforcement agencies had taken action against those facilitating such recruitment “so that people are not deceived into joining these risky endeavours.”
The figure marks a sharp increase since late September, when Jaiswal had reported that “roughly 27 Indians” were serving in the Russian forces and that diplomatic efforts were under way to secure their release. His earlier statement followed reports that more Indians were being recruited as support staff by Russian army units and later deployed to the frontlines in Ukraine.
The issue has been repeatedly raised with Moscow, including by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Russia last year. Then-Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra had said that the prime minister “strongly raised” the matter with Russian authorities, who “promised early discharge of all Indian nationals from the service of the Russian army.”
Kwatra noted that there was “a sense of promise from the Russian side” regarding the early release of the remaining Indians, whose number he had put at around 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 said.
However, there has been no official confirmation from Moscow on any such commitment. Russian Ambassador to India Denis Alipov later said that Russia was “very open to dialogue on this particular issue,” but offered no timeline for their discharge.
A month later, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar informed the Lok Sabha that progress on repatriation had been slow as “Russian authorities maintain that these Indian nationals entered into contracts for service with the Russian army.” He added that evidence indicated some of them “were misled,” having been told they were being hired for civilian jobs before being sent to the frontlines.
The Russian Embassy subsequently stated that “the Russian government has at no point of time been engaged in any public or obscure campaigns, more so in fraudulent schemes to recruit Indian nationals for military service in Russia.”
According to government data, as of February this year, 127 Indian nationals had been recruited by the Russian armed forces. Of them, 97 have been discharged, 12 were confirmed dead in the conflict, and the remaining individuals are yet to be accounted for.