'I could die at any moment'

Indians forced to serve with the Russian army in Ukraine, tell The Independent that they feel abandoned by Delhi

- SHWETA SHARMA

“I want to see the clear blue sky that is not raining drones and missiles if I make it out of Russia alive,” says Hardeep Gill*, a 24-year-old Indian man caught in the middle of the first major European conflict since the Second World War, fighting for a country that isn’t his own.

Gill, from a city in Punjab, is one of nearly 100 Indian nationals who have found themselves fighting alongside the Russian army in Ukraine, many of them ensnared by human traffickers tasked with recruiting foreign fighters to bolster the ranks of Vladimir Putin’s army.

Gill speaks to The Independent from a frontline location in southern Ukraine, talking in Hindi via WhatsApp voice notes for fear of being caught by his Russian superiors. “I could die any moment. I am in a dangerous place where we are being attacked by drones constantly,” Gill says.

Like many in India’s Punjab state, Gill grew up with dreams of settling abroad and wanted to pursue further studies in the UK. After he was denied a visa, he claims he left for Russia in midDecember on a tourist visa for the sake of getting a foreign stamp in his passport, hoping that travel experience would bolster his chances of securing a trip to the UK in the future.

His plans unravelled, he says, when a taxi driver in Russia overcharged him, robbed him of his money and belongings, and left him stranded. With no support system and no knowledge of the language, he wandered the streets, before finding his way into the hands of recruiters who inducted him into the Russian army. Now Gill has been deployed to the front line, digging trenches and assisting soldiers in a war that is not his own.