When Hemil Mangukiya left his small village within the Indian state of Gujarat final December, he advised his household he was off to Russia to make a greater residing than was attainable at residence in India.

Lured by a recruitment video he had seen on YouTube, the 23-year-old had thought he was going for a safe safety job removed from the conflict in Ukraine. But in strained cellphone calls residence from Russia, he advised his household he was as an alternative despatched to a month-long army coaching camp after which taken to the frontlines, the place he was made to dig trenches, carry ammunition and function rifles and machine weapons. Then, in late February, his calls abruptly stopped.

The name that got here days later shattered his father’s coronary heart: Mangukiya had died in a missile strike someplace in Ukraine.

“I think he hid from us the danger he was in,” stated Ashwin Mangukiya, 52. “Our entire family is devastated by this. We are still trying to get back his dead body.”

Mangukiya’s dying has make clear the destiny of dozens – by some estimates, tons of – of Indians who’ve ended up on the frontlines of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in opposition to their will, after signing up for roles described as army helpers or safety guards. In some instances, households say the boys thought they have been flying out for jobs in Dubai however then have been despatched on to Russia by brokers.

This week, a video circulated on social media of seven Indians from Punjab who claimed that they had travelled to Russia as vacationers for New Year however had been taken by an agent to Belarus and detained. “The police handed us over to Russian authorities, who made us sign documents,” stated one of many males within the video, recognized as Gagandeep Singh. “Now they are forcing us to fight in the war against Ukraine.”

On Wednesday, it was reported that one other Indian, Mohammad Afsan, had died on the frontlines of the conflict, after travelling to Moscow in November for what he thought was a job as a safety guard. “He had no idea he was being sent to a war zone,” stated his brother Mohammad Imran.

The downside has been much more pronounced in Nepal, the place the federal government was lately compelled to ban citizens from working in Russia or Ukraine after it was estimated that hundreds had ended up within the Russian armed forces in Ukraine. Some went voluntarily, however others say they’ve been trapped.

Many of the Nepalese have been from impoverished villages the place employment is scarce, and travelled beneath the false guarantees of high-earning jobs – with no point out of lively warfare – and infrequently accrued hundreds of {dollars} in money owed for charges paid to brokers. Officially, 12 Nepalese have died within the battle, however one organisation stated that they had confirmed 19 fatalities from the nation. According to experiences, a fighter from Nepal died in the identical missile strike that killed Mangukiya.

Accounts from Indians and Nepalese element how, upon their arrival in Russia, they have been coerced into signing contracts written in Russian (which have been seen by the Guardian) after which had their passports taken away. Only later would they study that they had dedicated themselves to a yr within the Russian armed forces, with no means out besides years in jail. After usually lower than two weeks of weapons coaching, they have been shipped straight to the brutal battle zones of Russia’s conflict in opposition to Ukraine.

Speaking from a military hospital someplace in Russia, Nandaram Pun, from Rolpa in Nepal, stated he had been promised a job in Germany by an agent he met on social media, and was advised he wanted to fly to Russia solely as a transit cease. Yet after being collected in Moscow, taken to a army coaching camp and taught to function a gun for the primary time in his life, Pun had the sinking realisation that Germany had solely been a ploy.

Not lengthy after, he was despatched to Bakhmut in east Ukraine, a metropolis the place one of many bloodiest and longest-running battles within the conflict continues to play out. Two Indians and 4 different Nepalese have been within the bunkers with him, alongside Russian troops and commanders.

One evening, as Pun was transporting weapons within the depths of Ukraine’s harsh, snowy winter, a Ukrainian drone hit. “We had no idea about the drone attacks. My legs, thighs and right hand were hit by shrapnel,” he stated. He stated he was first taken to a hospital within the Russian metropolis of Kaspiysk, in Dagestan, however had since been moved round and, not understanding Russian, now has no concept the place he’s being held. Several fellow Nepalese fighters are additionally in hospital, whereas yet one more is lacking and one other is in jail after making an attempt to flee.

“I don’t want to be cured, because if they think I am better, then they will send me back to war again,” stated Pun, who added that his efforts to get the Nepal authorities to rescue him had been in useless. “I don’t even have my passport. Please, I don’t want to die.”

Azad Yousuf Kumar, 31, left his residence within the Indian area of Kashmir in December to take a job as a home employee in Dubai, paying an agent he met by YouTube 300,000 rupees (£3,000) as an advance on his pay. But as an alternative, his household says, he was despatched on to a army coaching camp in Russia, the place he was shot within the leg throughout an train, after which dispatched to a Russian unit in Ukraine.

“He wanted to go abroad because there are hardly any jobs here and his wife had just had a baby,” stated Kumar’s elder brother, Sajad. “But he called us distressed to say he was sent to Russia from Dubai and made to join the military. He has been posted in a dangerous war zone, and he has to see injured every day, many with lost limbs and torn bodies.”

Kumar advised his household that the majority of these posted within the unit alongside him have been from India and Nepal, and in an analogous state of affairs of exploitation. “He has been urging us to get him out somehow, but we are helpless,” added his brother.

In India, a number of cited a YouTube channel, Baba Vlogs, which is run by Faisal Khan – an Indian recruiter working out of Dubai – because the platform that had duped them. Khan posted a collection of movies to his 300,000 followers from the streets of St Petersburg selling jobs in Russia as army helpers, categorically stating that they’d be protected and never despatched to the frontlines, and that this might additionally assist them get everlasting residency in Russia.

Khan advised the Guardian that he had despatched 26 Indians to Russia earlier than claiming he realised that he had been “misled” by a Russian middleman concerning the nature of the job and had “no idea they would be sent to a war zone”. “We are trying to get these people out of there now,” he stated.

An Indian man working as a translator for the Russian ministry of defence, who’s posted in a Moscow facility that recruits overseas fighters, stated many who arrived from India and Nepal had no clue they have been there to work within the battle zone.

“The agents persuade them that no harm will come to them. Given that these people come from poor backgrounds and spend a lot of money to reach Russia, they sign the contracts,” he stated, requesting anonymity. “After that, they can’t back out.”

The Indian authorities, which enjoys an in depth relationship with Russia, has acknowledged 20 Indians who’re working for the Russian military, and stated it was “trying our level best for their early discharge”.

Amrit Bahadur Rai, a spokesperson for Nepal’s ministry of overseas affairs, stated they too have been working “constantly” to deliver individuals again, however admitted they didn’t know the precise variety of their residents in Russia. Rai stated 245 households had filed petitions claiming that their relations have been trapped within the military there, and 5 extra have been identified to have been taken as prisoners of conflict by Ukraine.

Among them was Siddhartha Dhakal, 22, from Mandandeupur in Nepal, who was captured by Ukrainian forces in November. A video of him pleading for assist was extensively circulated on social media.

Dhakal, a dedicated scholar, had travelled to Russia to check medication, however discovered on his arrival that he had been tricked and that his solely possibility was to affix the army. “He is our only one son, our only hope,” sobbed his father, Biru Dhakal. “Please bring him home.”