All the youth trapped in the Russian Army amid the Russia-Ukraine war have returned to India.
He has shared his ordeal. He has also expressed his gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Mohammad Sufiyan, a youth from Narayanpet in Telangana, was also stranded there.
While talking to Indian Express, he shared about that horrifying scene. He said, “I was in a camp with Russian soldiers 60 kilometers inside Ukraine.
On September 6, a local army commander came and told us that we were dismissed from the job and our contract was no longer valid. We could return to India.
They provided an army bus for me, three young men from Gulbarga and other foreign nationals fighting with the Russians, and we reached Moscow two days later.”
Recalling his arrival in Moscow last December, Sufian said an employment agent assured him he was applying for a job as a security guard or an assistant in a government office at the Russian government office in Moscow.
He said, “As soon as we reached there we were given a document in Russian language to sign. We were told that it is a contract with the Russian government to work for a year at a salary of Rs 1 lakh per month.
However, a day later we were taken to an army camp and asked to start physical training and learn how to shoot a rifle.
We fired AK17 and AK74 rifles as part of our training. Then we were given two weeks of sniper rifle training. If anyone dared to resist, the officers fired bullets at the right and left side of our legs. After about 25 days of training, we were taken to the Russian border with Ukraine.”
Sufiyan said every day was a constant struggle to stay alive.
Some youths refused to work on the frontline after Hamil Mangukia, a youth from Gujarat, was killed in a drone attack along with 23 Russian soldiers in February.
He said, “As punishment, the officer in charge there forced us to dig a trench and made us spend the night in freezing temperatures with no food and only two bottles of water. As the war progressed, I and three young men from Gulbarga protested daily, telling the soldiers and officers that we had not signed up to die on their war front. We were digging trenches and they were reloading guns and throwing grenades.”
Sufiyan said he was promised a salary of Rs 1 lakh per month. The money was paid in instalments. The money was spent on food, generators for heat and renting space in the trenches to sleep.
When we returned to Moscow to return to India, the army officers took Indian bank account numbers and promised to deposit the salaries still due to us. Let’s see if they do it or not.
Mohammed Ilyas Saeed Hussaini, Mohammed Sameer Ahmed and Naeem Ahmed from Gulbarga also landed at the Hyderabad airport along with Sufiyan on Friday afternoon and were welcomed by their families.
Two other Indians who returned home included a youth from Kashmir and a youth from Kolkata.
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