Nepalese mercenaries enlisted in the Russian army to fight in Ukraine

More than a thousand Nepalese have joined the Russian army in recent months in exchange for promises of high salaries. Some have died, others have disappeared, and their loved ones remain without news.

Russia has an ever-increasing need for men to wage war in Ukraine. His army is therefore recruiting foreign mercenaries and more than a thousand Nepalese have joined in recent months, attracted by the promises of high pay. But many are sent to the front without proper training and die quickly. In Nepal, their families, without news, are in despair and have confided in franceinfo.

Sujan Sharma had just finished her hotel studies and couldn’t find work in Nepal. This 26-year-old man then sees an ad on a social network: the Russian army promises him a salary of around 2,000 euros per month and permanent residence in Russia, if he serves in the army for a year.

“I don’t know if he’s alive.”

Sujan has no military training, but he left last October. And it goes badly, says his mother Tirtha Kumari Rizal: “He signed his contract on November 1st and started his training. On the 28th they sent him to the front. That’s the last time I spoke to him. I don’t know if he’s alive. Around thirty Nepalis from his unit also disappeared.” A collective has identified more than 1,100 Nepalese who went to fight in the Russian army. A quarter of them are missing and Moscow does not communicate their status.

At least 16 of them are believed to have died, including Bharat Bahadur Shah, who left in July. His widow, Bhadra Shahi, is desperate: “We thought that this war would not last long, and that it would give us a new life. But my husband died three months after arriving in Russia. One of his Nepalese colleagues told me. I want recover his remains, but the Russians are not answering us.”

Recruiters arrested in Nepal

Kathmandu has identified 200 of its nationals in the Russian army, but cannot force Moscow to send them back. To curb the flow, the authorities arrested 12 recruiters in Nepal and banned their nationals from working in Russia and Ukraine.

This recruitment looks like human trafficking but on a military level, it makes no sense, believes Binoj Basnyat, a former officer in the Nepalese army: “It is impossible to train these recruits in two weeks or a month because the weapons are very sophisticated. These Nepalis are being used as human shields and this shows that Russia urgently needs men to fight.” The Russian army also recruited Indians, Congolese and Egyptians.