Yet another case of an Indian citizen being forced to fight Ukrainian forces for Russia has come to the fore. The latest victim is Telangana-native Mohammed Ahmed who was tricked by an agent to join the Russian Armed Forces.
The wife of the 37-year-old man has claimed that he has fractured a leg after jumping from a moving vehicle that was taking him to the frontlines. Seventeen of the 26 people who trained with him ahead of the said departure have died fighting already, and this includes another Indian citizen, the woman identified as Afsha Begum said.
It was in April that Mohammed Ahmed travelled to Russia from Hyderabad for a job in the construction sector. The agent who reportedly approached him said that a Mumbai-based consultancy firm was the employment provider, and he didn't suspect anything until it was too late, she told the press.
What happens in Russia upon arrival
Months after landing in Moscow, Ahmed was pushed into the mandatory arms training ahead of deployment, Jagran said in a report. During these days, he was not able to do any work and was purposefully asked to sit idle. With no money, the immigrants will have no choice but to join the fight for the payment. "Please don’t spare the agent who sent me here to Russia. He trapped me in all this. He kept me idle for 25 days with no work. I kept asking for a job, but nothing happened. I was dragged into this war in the name of employment," Mohammed Ahmed reportedly said in a video recorded from Russia.
As many as 30 men underwent weapons training at a remote Russian location, Jagran said. They were forced to complete the training against their will, following which 26 of them were sent to the frontlines. However, four Indians in the batch were determined not to fight and risk their lives for a foreign nation. Ahmed, unwilling to take any chance, jumped off a moving vehicle, which caused a fracture to his right leg. The Russians reportedly threatened to kill him if he was unwilling to fight, the Hindi daily said.
Afsha Begum said that her husband walks with a cast and was told by the Russians that they will make his death look like one due to a drone strike if he was unwilling to fight for them. “I am at the border, and fighting is going on here. Four of us Indians refused to go forward. They threatened us with guns—one soldier pointed a weapon at my neck and said they would shoot me and make it look like I was killed by a drone,” Jagran quoted him as saying in a video. Begum has reportedly written to S. Jaishankar, requesting the Ministry of External Affairs to take the necessary steps to rescue Mohammed Ahmed from Russia.
