‘Forced into Russian Army’, Haryana youth’s last SOS: ‘Going to war zone’

HISAR: One of the two youths from Kumhariya village in Fatehabad, who have claimed that they were forced to join the Russian armed forces and fight the Ukraine war, on Thursday night sent a last voice message to his brother, saying that he was being taken to the war zone at 5am on Friday and would lose access to his phone.

The message was sent via Telegram as the Russian Army had earlier deleted their WhatsApp accounts, said Raghuvir, whose brother Ankit Jangra is serving the Russian forces. "He also said that from now on his phone will not be reachable," said Raghuvir, who had earlier visited the ministry of external affairs (MEA) in Delhi, where officials assured him every effort was being made to bring the youths back.On Wednesday night, Vijay Poonia, another youth from the same village, sent a message to his friend Ramesh Kumar through Facebook, claiming that the Russian Army discovered they were sharing videos and forced them to delete their WhatsApp accounts.

Congress general secretary and Sirsa MP Kumari Selja has also written to external affairs minister S Jaishankar, seeking urgent intervention.Earlier this week, videos surfaced of Ankit and Vijay, along with other youths from Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, and Jammu & Kashmir, alleging that they were lured into Russia with false promises of jobs. They claimed they were being forced to fight against Ukraine as part of a batch of 15 youths.

Raghubir said his brother went to Moscow for a Russian language course and was working at KFC before being duped by a woman offering a guard's job. During the so-called agreement process, they were threatened, made to sign papers in Russian, and forced into army uniforms. They underwent 10 days of weapons training, before being told they would be sent to Ukraine.Another video shows five Indian youths—Ankit Jangra and Vijay Poonia (Fatehabad), Buta Singh (Punjab), and Sunil Sharma and Sachin (Jammu)—standing together in a dark room, terrified.Raghuvir revealed that Ankit went to Russia after taking a loan of Rs 4.75 lakh against their house. The family has no agricultural land, his father works as a mason, and Raghuvir himself is a labourer. "Now only I, my father, and mother are left at home. My brother got trapped in this deception," he said.Raised issued, says MEA officialMEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal confirmed in Delhi that India raised the matter with Russian officials both in Delhi and Moscow. "We have requested this practice be stopped immediately and our citizens be sent back. We are also in touch with the families of affected Indians," he said. He cautioned Indians against falling for such offers: "We appeal to citizens to stay away from any proposal to join the Russian Army.

Doing so is risking life and playing with danger."