Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Russia has lost a huge number of soldiers in its ongoing 22-month-long war against Ukraine since February 2022, and, despite calling in reservists, ex-servicemen, and volunteers to join the Army, is facing a shortage of manpower. Many of its reluctant soldiers are fighting the ‘unnecessary’ war, and some have even fled.
This may have forced Moscow to start hiring soldiers from foreign countries as well. Moscow’s experiment to draft a private mercenary army, the Wagner Group comprising of imprisoned criminals, failed to make much dent and, after its rebellion in mid-2023, it almost disappeared from the scene.
According to the media reports, Nepal has arrested 10 smugglers for cheating unemployed Nepali youths and pushing them into Russia, where they were forced to fight in the Ukraine war.
The media had been reporting this for weeks, but the death of six Nepali citizens on the front line in Ukraine, and the capture of a seventh by Kyiv’s forces, prompted Nepal to take action.
Now, Kathmandu has urged Moscow to stop using Nepali ‘mercenaries,’ and send back such Nepalis back home. It also requested Russia to pay compensation to the families of Nepali citizens who lost their lives in Ukraine.
The reports said the gang members have been accused of smuggling people out and forcing them to join the Russian military campaign in Ukraine.
They have also been charged with extorting large sums of money from unemployed youths, with the promise of a travel visa, an official said on Wednesday. However, the ‘customers’ were then coerced into illegal recruitment into the Russian army.
Kathmandu district police chief Bhupendra Khatri said the 10 suspects were arrested over the past few days following tip-offs.
“We are discussing with the government lawyers about the case and will produce them to the court,” Khatri was quoted as saying.
He said the detainees illegally charged each person up to USD 9,000 and sent them to Russia on “visit (tourist) visas”, mainly through the United Arab Emirates. They were then recruited into the Russian Army.
“It is a case of human smuggling … organized crime,” Khatri added.
Nepali soldiers, called Gurkhas and renowned for their courage and combat prowess, have served in the British and Indian armies since India gained independence in 1947 through a trilateral agreement. However, there is no such agreement with Russia.
A large number of Nepalis seek employment abroad to make a living, and remittances play an important role in Nepal’s economy. These remittances accounted for nearly a quarter of the gross domestic product (GDP) last year, ranking as the ninth-highest globally, according to the World Bank.
Russia has sought various sources for soldiers to post to Ukraine as its invasion extends. A mobilization drive launched last year added more than 300,000 soldiers to the ‘patriotic cause’, while the Wagner mercenary group recruited thousands of convicts.
Last week, President Vladimir Putin signed a decree boosting the size of the Russian army by 15 percent, although the Kremlin said it would not seek to fill the quota with a draft by offering generous benefits to recruits.