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A Bangladeshi man, Maksudur Rahman, was reportedly lured from his tropical homeland to Russia with the promise of a janitorial job, solely to search out himself thrust onto the entrance strains of the battle in Ukraine inside weeks.
An investigation by The Related Press has uncovered a sample the place Bangladeshi employees are enticed to Russia beneath false pretences of civilian employment, subsequently coerced into fight roles.
Many of those people confronted threats of violence, imprisonment, and even dying in the event that they refused. Mr Rahman, amongst three Bangladeshi males who managed to flee the Russian army and spoke to AP, recounted how he and fellow employees had been instructed to signal Russian paperwork upon arrival in Moscow, which later proved to be army contracts.
They had been then transported to a military camp for coaching in drone warfare, medical evacuation, and fundamental fight abilities involving heavy weaponry.
Rahman protested, complaining that this was not the work he agreed to do. A Russian commander supplied a stark reply via 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 in opposition to 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 mentioned their family members shared comparable accounts with relations.
Neither the Russian Protection Ministry, the Russian Overseas Ministry nor the South Asian nation’s authorities responded to an inventory of questions from AP.
Rahman mentioned the employees in his group had been threatened with 10-year jail phrases and overwhelmed.
“They’d say, ‘Why don’t you’re employed? Why are you crying?’ and kick us,” mentioned Rahman, who escaped and returned dwelling after seven months.
The employees’ accounts had been corroborated by paperwork, together with journey papers, Russian army contracts, medical and police experiences, and pictures. The paperwork present the visas granted to Bangladeshi employees, 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 informed AP they noticed a whole lot of Bangladeshis alongside Russian forces in Ukraine.
Officers and activists say Russia has additionally focused males from different African and South Asian nations, together with India and Nepal.
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Within the lush greenery of the Lakshmipur district in southeast Bangladesh, almost each household has at the very least 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 youngster, whom they may possible not see once more for years. Little kids help complete households with earnings earned overseas.
In 2024, Rahman was again in Lakshmipur after finishing a contract in Malaysia and searching for new work. A labor recruiter marketed a chance to work as a cleaner in a army 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 price of 1.2 million Bangladeshi taka, about $9,800, to the dealer as a price. He arrived in Moscow in December 2024.
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As soon as in Russia, Rahman and three different Bangladeshi employees had been offered with a doc in Russian. Believing it was a contract for cleansing providers, Rahman signed.
Then they went to a army facility removed from Moscow, the place they had been issued weapons and underwent three days of coaching, studying to fireside, advance and administer first assist. 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 mentioned.
The lads stayed in a leaky bunker within the rain as bombs fell a couple of kilometers away. Missiles flew overhead.
One particular person was serving meals. “The subsequent second, he was shot from a drone and fell to the bottom proper there. After which he was changed,” Rahman mentioned.
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Some Bangladeshi employees 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 trying to find employment on-line, Miajee was contacted by a Russian military recruiter. When he expressed his reluctance to kill, the recruiter mentioned his abilities as an electrician made him a super candidate for an digital warfare or drone unit that might be nowhere close to fight.
Together with his army papers so as, Miajee was taken in January 2025 to a army 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 informed me, ‘You’ve got been made to signal a contract to affix the battalion. You can not do some other work right here. You’ve got been deceived,’” he mentioned after returning to his village of Munshiganj.
Miajee mentioned he was overwhelmed 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 boundaries, for instance, “in the event that they informed us to go to the correct and we went to the left, they’d beat us severely,” he mentioned.
He was made to hold provides to the entrance and gather 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 mentioned land mines had been all over the place.
He was caught, and the Russian commander fled.
Rahman ultimately suffered a leg wound that despatched him to a hospital close to Moscow. He escaped from the medical heart and went on to the Bangladeshi embassy in Moscow, which ready a journey cross 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.
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Households in Lakshmipur maintain tightly to the paperwork of their lacking family members, believing that sooner or later, when offered to the correct particular person, the papers may unlock the trail to their return.
The paperwork included pictures of Russian enterprise visas, army contracts and armed forces canine tags. The papers had been despatched by the lacking males, who urged relations to complain to recruiting brokers.
The contracts had been verified by two Russian teams serving to males evade or get out of army service. Maj. Vladimir Yaltsev, head of the Kostroma regional recruitment heart for contract army service, is listed as signing the contracts on behalf of the Russian army.
Of their closing messages, these husbands, sons and fathers conveyed to relations that they had been being forcibly taken to the entrance strains in Ukraine. After that, all communication ceased.
The households filed a criticism with police in Dhaka and traveled on three events to the capital to strain the federal government to analyze.
Salma Akdar has not heard from her husband since March 26. Of their final dialog, Ajgar Hussein, 40, informed 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 supplied a job as a laundry attendant in Russia, his spouse mentioned. He had not too long ago returned from Saudi Arabia and deliberate to cease working abroad for a spell, she defined. However believing Russia supplied alternatives to earn 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 informed his spouse he was being taken to a military camp the place they had been skilled to make use of weapons and carry heavy hundreds as much as 80 kilograms (176 kilos). “Seeing all this, he cried lots and informed them, ‘We can not do this stuff. We now have by no means finished this earlier than,’” his spouse mentioned.
For 2 months after that, he was offline. He reappeared briefly to clarify they had been being compelled to battle within the battle.
Russian commanders “informed him that if he didn’t go, they’d detain him, shoot him, cease offering meals,” she mentioned.
Households within the village confronted the recruiting agent, demanding to know why their family members had been being skilled for battle. The agent replied dismissively, saying that it was customary process in Russia, insisting that even launderers needed to bear comparable coaching.
Hussein left a closing audio word for this spouse: “Please pray for me.”
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Mohammed Siraj’s 20-year-old son, Sajjad, departed believing he could be working as a chef in Russia. He wanted to help his unemployed father and chronically unwell mom.
Siraj wept as he described his son begging him to ask the agent why he was being made to bear army coaching. Sajjad fought together with his Russian commanders, insisting he had come to be a chef, to not battle. They threatened him with jail if he didn’t comply. Then another person threatened to shoot him, his father recalled.
Sajjad known as the household and mentioned he was being taken to battle. “That’s the final message from my son,” he mentioned.
In February, Siraj realized via 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 effectively. However phrase unfold via 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.
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In late 2024, households approached BRAC, a corporation that advocates for Bangladeshi employees, and mentioned they may not attain their relations in Russia. That prompted the group to analyze. It uncovered at the very least 10 Bangladeshi males who’re nonetheless lacking after they had been had been lured to battle.
“There are two or three layers of people who find themselves profiting,” mentioned Shariful Islam, the pinnacle 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 consider that comparable networks, operated by Bangladeshi intermediaries with connections to the Russian authorities, are liable for facilitating the entry of Bangladeshis into Russia.
One other 9 folks had been found to have been lured into preventing based mostly on that police investigation, in accordance with investigator Mostafizur Rahman. The Related Press reviewed the police report filed by one sufferer’s spouse, who mentioned he went to Russia anticipating to work in a chocolate manufacturing facility. A intermediary, a Bangladeshi with Russian citizenship who was residing in Moscow, has been charged.
It isn’t clear what number of Bangladeshis had been lured to Russia. A Bangladeshi police investigator informed AP that about 40 Bangladeshis might have misplaced their lives within the battle.
Some go willingly, realizing they may find yourself on the entrance strains as a result of the cash is simply too good, in accordance with Rahman, the investigator.
In Lakshmipur, investigators realized that the native agent has been funneling recruits to a central agent related to an organization known as SP International. The corporate didn’t reply to AP’s calls and emails. Investigators discovered it ceased operations in 2025.
Households of the lacking people mentioned they haven’t acquired any cash earned by their family members. Miajee too mentioned he was by no means paid.
“I don’t need cash or anything,” Akdar mentioned. “I simply need my my kids’s father again.”
