At the start of this month, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine claimed that Russia’s combat losses now amount to 414,680 troops.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had earlier claimed a total of 180,000 Russians had been killed in the war – with the number of people injured or missing taking total Russian losses to nearly half a million troops.
Now, in an announcement last night (Thursday, March 7), the CBI said around 35 men have been trafficked from India to Russia.
The Indian foreign ministry has previously said it was thought around 20 Indian nationals were fighting in Ukraine.
At least two men from India have died while fighting at the front after being tricked into going to Russia, say their devastated families. One of those deaths has been confirmed by the Indian Embassy in Russia.
In last night’s statement, the CBI said agents were using social media apps like YouTube to lure “gullible” youths to travel to Russia by promising them “lucrative jobs,” reported the BBC.
A man from Uttar Pradesh, who is now living in Moscow, previously told the BBC that he had been lured to Russia by a YouTube video promising a monthly salary of 150,000 rupees ($1813; £1,415).
He said: “We were not told that we are being drafted into an army.”
The CBI said that the trafficked Indian nationals “were trained in combat roles and deployed at front bases in Russia-Ukraine War Zone against their wishes”. The agency also said some had been “grievously injured”.
Investigators in India conducted searches at 13 locations, including Delhi and Mumbai. Cash worth 5m rupees, “incriminating documents” and electronic devices were seized and a number of people were detained for questioning.
And now the CBI has now filed criminal cases against multiple private visa consultancy firms and agents, reports the BBC.
It comes after India’s foreign ministry acknowledged “that some Indian nationals have enlisted for support roles with the Russian army”.
The ministry said it was working with Russian authorities to get Indian nationals discharged from the army. And it urged “all Indian nationals to exercise due caution and stay away from this conflict”.
