– In Nepal I worked as a contractor in connection with road work. This is what a 33-year-old Nepalese man says in an interview posted on YouTube and published by the Ukrainian newspaper The Kyiv Independent. The interview was made after the man was captured by Ukrainian forces. In the past, Nepali media have written about him, where he is presented with his full name. We therefore do not know whether he speaks of his own free will or whether he is pressured to say what he does. The Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War warns against publishing interviews with soldiers who are captured. But the Nepali man is in a different category because he does not want to go back to Russia, or that the Russian authorities want to have him extradited, because he comes from another country. He can be a good example of why so many from the impoverished mountain country in the Himalayas have enlisted to fight on the Russian side in the war against Ukraine, in the same way as thousands of other foreigners, from countries such as Somalia and Sri Lanka. He was also one of the foreign prisoners of war who were presented at a press conference in Kyiv on 15 March 2024. – Propaganda scoop for Ukraine International law expert Cecilie Hellestveit says it is important to treat interviews from people in captivity with caution. – The Ukrainians have a lot of different things they want to communicate. The Ukrainians want to show a side of Russian warfare that puts Russia in a bad light. So this story is a propaganda scoop for Ukraine, says Hellestveit and continues: – Having said that, this is how Russia operates. They can pay off by filling up with people from third countries. This is how great empires operate. We know the French Foreign Legion, and the US has had contractors with people from, among other places, South America for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. – Russia will say that it is the same on the other side. We know that there are people from other countries who fight with the Ukrainians, she says. FOREIGN PRISONERS OF WAR. On March 15, the Ukrainian security service organized a press conference in Kyiv. Photo: AFP In financial trouble This is the first time that one of the prisoners of war from Nepal has spoken openly in this way about why they chose to go to war in a country far away. – I was in a very difficult financial situation, says the 33-year-old, in the interview with what appears to be a representative of the Ukrainian security service SBU. He says he had a construction company, but that this ran into major difficulties in connection with the corona epidemic in 2020. He originally comes from the Morang district in eastern Nepal. POOR COUNTRY. Nepal is a poor country at the foot of the Himalayan mountains in Asia. Photo: AFP He says that he has a debt of around 20,000 dollars or more than 200,000 Norwegian kroner to the bank and friends. A lot of money in poor Nepal. – But then I met a person who told me that he had already been in the Russian army, says the former mercenary. This person showed photos from his service and said that if he enlisted he would primarily work with logistics behind the front. And the salary was an incredible $2,000, the friend told me, over a beer. At the press conference on March 15, the Nepalese said that it was videos he saw on the platform TikTok that made him choose to apply for a tourist visa and go to Russia. Short training After a week, he found himself in the Russian capital, Moscow, where he reported to the large recruitment center at 5 Yablochkovo Street in the north of the city. – I was handed a contract, which I was helped to translate. It said that I was to receive 105 days of training, says the Nepalese man. But everything went very quickly. There was never any in-depth training. A NUMBER. A number of men from Nepal were registered as soldiers by the Russian Ministry of Defense on 22 November 2023. – I tried to protest, but was told by one of the Russian officers that now all I had to do was obey orders, says the man in the interview on YouTube. A list of Nepalese who have enlisted in the Russian army was later published by the Ukrainian security service SBU. Captured by the Ukrainians But according to himself, his military career was relatively short. In the interview, he does not say much about where and how he was captured by the Ukrainian forces. But he says that he did not serve for so long that he was paid his first salary from the Russian armed forces, less than 25 days. The mother of the 33-year-old says in an interview with the website Khabarhub that they already received a message in December 2023 that her son had been arrested. Now she is asking the authorities in Nepal to do what they can to get him and the other Nepali prisoners of war in Ukraine back to their homeland. Many Nepalese soldiers fought in Ukraine The former soldier himself says that during his time in Russia and in the occupied areas of Ukraine he met around 200 Nepalese who had enlisted. BRUTAL WAR. The war in Ukraine continues unabated. Here, Ukrainian soldiers fire a French-built cannon in Donetsk region on June 27, 2024. Photo: AFP But he believes that perhaps as many as 4,000 men from Nepal have enlisted for service in the Russian army. According to the Nepalese authorities, 13 of their citizens have been confirmed dead in the war in Ukraine, while four have been captured. But these numbers date from last winter, and the number may have increased significantly since then. 17 soldiers from Sri Lanka are probably killed At that press conference on 15 March, according to the Ukrainian authorities, five captured Nepalese were present, in addition to people from Somalia, Sierra Leone and Cuba. At the same time, the authorities in Sri Lanka have asked Russia for compensation for those of their citizens who have lost their lives in the Russian army’s “special operation” in Ukraine. A delegation from the Sri Lankan Ministry of Foreign Affairs visited Moscow in late June 2024, where they claimed that at least 17 Sri Lankan soldiers have lost their lives in the war in Ukraine. A Sri Lankan soldier who was wounded managed to return to his homeland via the Sri Lankan embassy in Moscow, where he was interviewed by the AFP news agency at the beginning of June. THE WOUND. Anil Madusanka from Sri Lanka enlisted in Russia’s war against Ukraine. He was wounded and managed to make it back to Sri Lanka. Photo: AFP Don’t know the difference between left and right Russian military bloggers, who are close to the war, have for a long time been critical of the use of foreign mercenaries in the front line. In a post at the beginning of July, one of them writes on Telegram that the Nepalese soldiers cannot speak Russian and often have very poor English. – I say he should go to the left, and he goes to the right, writes the submitter, who believes that the Nepalese soldiers should be used for transport missions. The post also tells of another Nepali soldier who has simply disappeared from his unit. Regrets and feels guilty At home in Nepal, the 33-year-old has a wife and a 20-month-old son. – I have put my family in a difficult situation. I regret and feel guilty, he says in the interview on YouTube, without elaborating more on his future. By enlisting in the Russian army, he has broken Nepali law, which only allows enlistment in the British and Singaporean armies. STAND FORWARD: The 33-year-old Nepalese man appeared for the first time at a press conference on 15 March 2024. Photo: AFP / AFP Russia has no desire to extradite citizens of other countries from prisoners of war in Ukraine. Thus, Ukraine cannot use them to exchange Ukrainian prisoners of war either. Nepalese authorities have taken measures to prevent Nepali men from going to war for Russia. The problem is preventing citizens who are already in Russia or in other countries from enlisting. On Thursday, Russian Attorney General Aleksandr Bastrykin said the country has sent 10,000 immigrants who have recently been granted citizenship to the war in Ukraine. Published 05.07.2024, at 13.26
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