On October 6, 2025, Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament Satnam Singh Sandhu asked the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to urgently intervene in the case of Indian youths who were allegedly lured with promises of well-paying jobs, but were later forced to join the Russian Army. On October 4, 2025, Ukrainian forces captured 22-year-old Majoti Sahil, originally from Morbi in Gujarat, who was a student framed on fake drug charges, and coerced into signing a military contract. On October 1, 2025, he was sent on a mission to Pokrovsk, Ukraine, but after a dispute with his commander, he chose to surrender to Ukrainian forces. In September 2025, a group of 15 Indians (mostly from Telangana and Haryana) were trapped by job promises. On September 14, 2024, Mohammed Sufiyan (23), a Telangana native, returned home after he ended up working as a support staff for the Russian army after being duped by an employment agent. He was promised a security-related job and not informed that this would mean that he would become a military recruitment in the Russian Army. On February 21, 2024, 23-year-old Hemil Ashvinbhai Mangukiya from Surat in Gujarat, who had been hired as a security helper by the Russian Army, was killed in a Ukrainian airstrike in the Donetsk region near the Russia-Ukraine border. Sameer Ahmad, 23, a resident of Gulbarga, Karnataka, said that Mangukiya had been struck by missiles. Many more such incidents have been reported by news outlets. The MEA said that 126 Indian nationals were coerced or misled into joining the Russian Armed Forces. As of January 2025, 96 had been discharged and repatriated to India. This follows broader efforts, after Russia pledged the release of misled recruits during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Moscow in July 2024. Before that, around 91 repatriations had been reported by September 2024. Russian authorities have confirmed that 12 Indians were killed in combat, while 16 were still listed as missing. Between eight and 27 Indians remain in Russian military service, with India calling for their “expeditious release.”Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, now in its fourth year as of October 2025, has exposed a grim underbelly of human trafficking and coercive recruitment, drawing in thousands of vulnerable individuals from across the Global South and beyond. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, tens of thousands of foreigners from over 48 countries have been recruited into the Russian Army. The first wave of foreign fighters, comprising roughly 17,241 individuals, joined between 2014 and 2019, during the Donbas conflict in Ukraine; however, the post-2022 surge has been far larger. Facing severe manpower shortages, Russia has often resorted to deceptive recruitment tactics. Other than India, Cuban make up 15,000–20,000 fighters in Russia, allegedly with state complicity, and 200-300 deaths. Nepalese make up 10,000-15,000 recruits, driven by job scams promising construction work. North Korea has sent 10,000–12,000 state-deployed troops, primarily to Kursk. Chinese make up around 155 recruits, lured via social media; according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the number is more than this. Central Asian countries such as Tajikistan, Iraq, and Uzbekistan each supply coerced migrants, often threatened with deportation, with recruits surviving an average of 140 days of deployment. The threat of deportation is used by Russian authorities, particularly law enforcement and immigration officials. This tactic is a part of a broader strategy to replenish dwindling troop numbers without resorting to a politically sensitive mass mobilisation of Russian citizens. Russian authorities conduct raids on workplaces, dormitories, and mosques, targeting undocumented migrants or those with expired permits. During these operations, officers present detained individuals with a stark choice: either sign a military contract to fight in Ukraine or face immediate deportation. In some cases, additional pressure is applied, such as threats to annul the citizenship of naturalised Russians or to deport their families. Others are lured with financial incentives, such as the promise of debt forgiveness for loans owed to Russian banks. Russia recruits them with very minimal training and deploys them on the front line. Other countries with active fighters include Belarus, Serbia, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, Somalia, Kazakhstan, Sudan, Mali, the Central African Republic, Sierra Leone, Egypt, Ghana, Cameroon, Senegal, Iran, Yemen, Jordan, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, among others, with recruitment often exploiting refugees or students. Initially, Russia’s recruitment strategy for foreign nationals relied on a mix of propaganda, financial incentives, and voluntary enlistment, promising high-paying “safe” jobs in sectors like construction, security, or education, with monthly salaries of $1,500–$4,000, housing, bonuses, and fast-tracked citizenship. Over the past year, these efforts have evolved into widespread human trafficking scams targeting vulnerable individuals from impoverished countries. Recruiters, operating through United Arab Emirates (UAE)/Indian travel agencies, Arabic Telegram channels, Havana-based firms, and platforms like YouTube and TikTok, deceive vulnerable individuals with false promises of “rear support” or “security” jobs. While 20 to 30% of recruits across the world join voluntarily through channels like Telegram’s Rusich (a Russian neo-Nazi paramilitary unit), driven by anti-Western ideology or adventure, the rest are coerced through threats of deportation, violence, or fabricated charges, with deserters facing execution and families receiving no compensation for deaths, despite arrests and investigations. The United Nations, through its various agencies, has documented significant human rights concerns related to the recruitment and exploitation of foreign nationals in Russia’s forces during the Ukraine war, and has urged states to prosecute citizens joining foreign armies if they violate domestic laws. August 2024 marked a tightening of Russia’s migration regime through Federal Law No. 260-FZ, signed by president Vladimir Putin, which introduced an “expulsion regime” for undocumented foreigners, mandatory biometric registration, and expedited deportations – effective from early 2025. This has been criticised by human rights groups as exacerbating coercion of migrants into military service amid the war, rather than providing reassurances. Other hand, new cases continue to emerge, prompting repeated follow-ups. Many countries, besides India, are demanding the repatriation of fighters and bodies. This exploitation disproportionately affects the Global South, exacerbating the suffering caused by the conflict. It underscores the urgent need to dismantle trafficking networks operating from Moscow to the frontlines. Currently, the repatriation of victims is a pressing concern. This issue intersects significantly with human trafficking, national security, and the security of the diaspora, demanding immediate and global action.Ruchika Kakkar is a research assistant at the Institute of Conflict and Management (ICM).