Staff from Bangladesh sought jobs in Russia however received despatched to fight in Ukraine

[ad_1] LAKSHMIPUR, Bangladesh -- A labor recruiter persuaded Maksudur Rahman to go away the tropical heat of his hometown in Bangladesh and journey 1000's of miles to frigid Russia for a job as a janitor.

Inside weeks, he discovered himself on the entrance traces of Russia’s battle in Ukraine.

An Related Press investigation discovered that Bangladeshi staff had been lured to Russia underneath the false promise of civilian work, solely to be thrust into the chaos of combat in Ukraine . Many had been threatened with violence, imprisonment or loss of life.

AP spoke with three Bangladeshi males who escaped from the Russian navy, together with Rahman, who stated that after arriving in Moscow , he and a bunch of fellow Bangladeshi staff had been instructed to signal Russian paperwork that turned out to be navy contracts. They had been taken to a military camp for coaching in drone warfare strategies, medical evacuation procedures and primary fight expertise utilizing heavy weapons.

Rahman protested, complaining that this was not the work he agreed to do. A Russian commander provided a stark reply by means of a translation app: “Your agent despatched you right here. We purchased you."

The three Bangladeshi males shared harrowing accounts of being coerced into front-line duties towards their will, together with advancing forward of Russian forces, transporting provides, evacuating wounded troopers and recovering the useless. The households of three different Bangladeshi males who're lacking stated their family members shared related accounts with family members.

Neither the Russian Protection Ministry, the Russian International Ministry nor the South Asian nation’s authorities responded to an inventory of questions from AP.

Rahman stated the employees in his group had been threatened with 10-year jail phrases and crushed.

“They’d say, ‘Why don’t you're employed? Why are you crying?’ and kick us,” stated Rahman, who escaped and returned dwelling after seven months.

The employees’ accounts had been corroborated by paperwork, together with journey papers, Russian navy contracts, medical and police studies, and pictures. The paperwork present the visas granted to Bangladeshi staff, their accidents sustained throughout battles and proof of their participation within the battle.

What number of Bangladeshis had been deceived into preventing is unclear. The Bangladeshi males instructed AP they noticed lots of of Bangladeshis alongside Russian forces in Ukraine.

Officers and activists say Russia has additionally focused males from other African and South Asian countries , together with India and Nepal.

Within the lush greenery of the Lakshmipur district in southeast Bangladesh, almost each household has a minimum of one member employed as a migrant employee abroad. Job shortage and poverty have made such work important.

Fathers embark on yearslong journeys for migrant work, returning dwelling just for fleeting visits, simply lengthy sufficient to conceive one other baby, whom they may probably not see once more for years. Little kids help complete households with revenue earned overseas.

In 2024, Rahman was again in Lakshmipur after finishing a contract in Malaysia and looking for new work. A labor recruiter marketed a possibility to work as a cleaner in a navy camp in Russia. He promised $1,000 to $1,500 a month and the potential of everlasting residency.

Rahman took out a mortgage to pay the charge of 1.2 million Bangladeshi taka, about $9,800, to the dealer as a charge. He arrived in Moscow in December 2024.

As soon as in Russia, Rahman and three different Bangladeshi staff had been introduced with a doc in Russian. Believing it was a contract for cleansing companies, Rahman signed.

Then they went to a navy facility removed from Moscow, the place they had been issued weapons and underwent three days of coaching, studying to fireplace, advance and administer first support. The group went to a barrack close to the Russia-Ukraine border and continued coaching.

Rahman and two others had been then despatched to front-line positions and ordered to dig pits inside a bunker.

“The Russians would take a bunch of say, 5 Bangladeshis. They might ship us in entrance and keep on the again themselves,” he stated.

The lads stayed in a leaky bunker within the rain as bombs fell just a few kilometers away. Missiles flew overhead.

One individual was serving meals. "The following second, he was shot from a drone and fell to the bottom proper there. After which he was changed,” Rahman stated.

Some Bangladeshi staff had been lured into the military with guarantees of positions removed from the entrance line.

Mohan Miajee enlisted within the Russian military after the job that originally introduced him to Russia — serving as an electrician for a gas-processing plant within the distant far east — was affected by harsh working circumstances and relentless chilly.

Whereas looking for employment on-line, Miajee was contacted by a Russian military recruiter. When he expressed his reluctance to kill, the recruiter stated his expertise as an electrician made him a super candidate for an digital warfare or drone unit that might be nowhere close to fight.

Along with his navy papers so as, Miajee was taken in January 2025 to a navy camp within the captured metropolis of Avdiivka. He confirmed the camp commander paperwork describing his expertise and defined that his recruiter had instructed him to ask for “electrical work.”

“The commander instructed me, ‘You've been made to signal a contract to affix the battalion. You can not do every other work right here. You've been deceived,’” he stated after returning to his village of Munshiganj.

Miajee stated he was crushed with shovels, handcuffed and tortured in a cramped basement cell, and held there each time he refused to hold out an order or made a small mistake.

Due to language limitations, for instance, "in the event that they instructed us to go to the precise and we went to the left, they'd beat us severely,” he stated.

He was made to hold provides to the entrance and acquire useless our bodies.

In the meantime in Rahman's unit, some weeks later, they had been instructed to evacuate a Russian soldier with a wounded leg. The lads carried him, however no sooner had they left the place than they noticed a Ukrainian drone buzzing above. It fired at them. Then extra drones got here in a swarm.

Rahman couldn't advance or return to the bunker. A Russian soldier guiding them stated land mines had been in every single place.

He was caught, and the Russian commander fled.

Rahman finally suffered a leg wound that despatched him to a hospital close to Moscow. He escaped from the medical middle and went on to the Bangladeshi embassy in Moscow, which ready a journey move for him to go away the nation.

Some months later, Rahman helped his brother-in-law Jehangir Alam, who additionally spoke with AP, run away utilizing the identical technique — leaving the hospital after being wounded and interesting to the embassy.

Households in Lakshmipur maintain tightly to the paperwork of their lacking family members, believing that in the future, when introduced to the precise individual, the papers would possibly unlock the trail to their return.

The paperwork included pictures of Russian enterprise visas, navy contracts and military canine tags. The papers had been despatched by the lacking males, who urged family members to complain to recruiting brokers.

The contracts had been verified by two Russian teams serving to males evade or get out of navy service. Maj. Vladimir Yaltsev, head of the Kostroma regional recruitment middle for contract navy service, is listed as signing the contracts on behalf of the Russian navy.

Of their closing messages, these husbands, sons and fathers conveyed to family members that they had been being forcibly taken to the entrance traces in Ukraine. After that, all communication ceased.

The households filed a grievance with police in Dhaka and traveled on three events to the capital to stress the federal government to analyze.

Salma Akdar has not heard from her husband since March 26. Of their final dialog, Ajgar Hussein, 40, instructed her he had been bought to the Russian military. The couple has two sons, ages 7 and 11.

Hussein left in mid-December 2024, believing he was being provided a job as a laundry attendant in Russia, his spouse stated. He had just lately returned from Saudi Arabia and deliberate to cease working abroad for a spell, she defined. However believing Russia provided alternatives to make cash, he left once more. He bought a few of his land to pay the agent's charges.

For 2 weeks, he was in common contact. Then he instructed his spouse he was being taken to a military camp the place they had been educated to make use of weapons and carry heavy hundreds as much as 80 kilograms (176 kilos). “Seeing all this, he cried quite a bit and instructed them, ‘We can not do this stuff. Now we have by no means finished this earlier than,'” his spouse stated.

For 2 months after that, he was offline. He reappeared briefly to elucidate they had been being pressured to combat within the battle.

Russian commanders "instructed him that if he didn't go, they'd detain him, shoot him, cease offering meals,” she stated.

Households within the village confronted the recruiting agent, demanding to know why their family members had been being educated for battle. The agent replied dismissively, saying that it was customary process in Russia, insisting that even launderers needed to bear related coaching.

Hussein left a closing audio be aware for this spouse: “Please pray for me."

Mohammed Siraj’s 20-year-old son, Sajjad, departed believing he can be working as a chef in Russia. He wanted to help his unemployed father and chronically sick mom.

Siraj wept as he described his son begging him to ask the agent why he was being made to bear navy coaching. Sajjad fought together with his Russian commanders, insisting he had come to be a chef, to not combat. They threatened him with jail if he didn't comply. Then another person threatened to shoot him, his father recalled.

Sajjad referred to as the household and stated he was being taken to battle. “That's the final message from my son,” he stated.

In February, Siraj discovered by means of a Bangladeshi man serving with Sajjad that his son had been killed in a drone assault. Unable to bear telling his spouse the reality, Siraj assured her that their son was doing nicely. However phrase unfold by means of the village.

“You lied to me,” Siraj recalled her saying as she confronted him. Quickly after, she died, calling out for her son in her closing moments.

In late 2024, households approached BRAC, a corporation that advocates for Bangladeshi staff, and stated they might now not attain their family members in Russia. That prompted the group to analyze. It uncovered a minimum of 10 Bangladeshi males who're nonetheless lacking after they had been had been lured to combat.

“There are two or three layers of people who find themselves profiting,” stated Shariful Islam, the top of BRAC's migration program.

Bangladesh police investigators uncovered a trafficking ring in Russia after a Bangladeshi man returned in January 2025, alleging he had been deceived into preventing. The police imagine that related networks, operated by Bangladeshi intermediaries with connections to the Russian authorities, are accountable for facilitating the entry of Bangladeshis into Russia.

One other 9 individuals had been found to have been lured into preventing primarily based on that police investigation, in line with investigator Mostafizur Rahman. The Related Press reviewed the police report filed by one sufferer's spouse, who stated he went to Russia anticipating to work in a chocolate manufacturing unit. A intermediary, a Bangladeshi with Russian citizenship who was residing in Moscow, has been charged.

It is not clear what number of Bangladeshis had been lured to Russia. A Bangladeshi police investigator instructed AP that about 40 Bangladeshis might have misplaced their lives within the battle.

Some go willingly, realizing they may find yourself on the entrance traces as a result of the cash is just too good, in line with Rahman, the investigator.

In Lakshmipur, investigators discovered that the native agent has been funneling recruits to a central agent related to an organization referred to as SP International. The corporate didn't reply to AP’s calls and emails. Investigators discovered it ceased operations in 2025.