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Maksudur Rahman, 31, who escaped after preventing for the Russian military, reveals a Russian army canine tag throughout an interview with The Related Press in Lakshmipur, Bangladesh, Dec. 10, 2025. AP-Yonhap
LAKSHMIPUR, Bangladesh — A labor recruiter persuaded Maksudur Rahman to depart the tropical heat of his hometown in Bangladesh and journey hundreds of miles to frigid Russia for a job as a janitor.
Inside weeks, he discovered himself on the entrance strains of Russia’s struggle in Ukraine.
An Related Press investigation discovered that Bangladeshi staff had been lured to Russia underneath the false promise of civilian work, solely to be thrust into the chaos of fight in Ukraine . Many had been threatened with violence, imprisonment or loss of life.
AP spoke with three Bangladeshi males who escaped from the Russian army, together with Rahman, who stated that after arriving in Moscow, he and a gaggle of fellow Bangladeshi staff had been instructed to signal Russian paperwork that turned out to be army contracts. They had been taken to a military camp for coaching in drone warfare strategies, medical evacuation procedures and primary fight abilities utilizing heavy weapons.
Rahman protested, complaining that this was not the work he agreed to do. A Russian commander supplied a stark reply by way of 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 stated their family members shared related accounts with family members.
Neither the Russian Protection Ministry, the Russian Overseas Ministry nor the South Asian nation’s authorities responded to a listing of questions from AP.
Rahman stated the employees in his group had been threatened with 10-year jail phrases and crushed.
“They’d say, ‘Why don’t you’re employed? Why are you crying?’ and kick us,” stated Rahman, who escaped and returned dwelling after seven months.
Salma Akdar, 28, who has not heard from her husband Ajgar Hussein, 40, for months, sits after chatting with the Related Press, in Lakshmipur, Bangladesh, Dec. 10, 2025. AP-Yonhap
The employees’ accounts had been corroborated by paperwork, together with journey papers, Russian army contracts, medical and police stories, and pictures. The paperwork present the visas granted to Bangladeshi staff, their accidents sustained throughout battles and proof of their participation within the struggle.
What number of Bangladeshis had been deceived into preventing is unclear. The Bangladeshi males instructed AP they noticed lots of 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.
Within the lush greenery of the Lakshmipur district in southeast Bangladesh, practically each household has at the 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 baby, 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 looking 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 for 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.
As soon as in Russia, Rahman and three different Bangladeshi staff had been introduced 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 support. 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 gaggle of say, 5 Bangladeshis. They might ship us in entrance and keep on the again themselves,” he stated.
The boys stayed in a leaky bunker within the rain as bombs fell just a few kilometers away. Missiles flew overhead.
One particular person was serving meals. “The following second, he was shot from a drone and fell to the bottom proper there. After which he was changed,” Rahman stated.
Some Bangladeshi staff had been lured into the military with guarantees of positions removed from the entrance line.
Mohan Miajee, 29, who escaped after preventing for the Russian military, poses for a portrait in Munshiganj, Bangladesh, Dec. 9, 2025. AP-Yonhap
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 stricken 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 stated his abilities as an electrician made him a great candidate for an digital warfare or drone unit that may 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 instructed me, ‘You might have been made to signal a contract to affix the battalion. You can not do every other work right here. You might have been deceived,’” he stated after returning to his village of Munshiganj.
Miajee stated he was crushed 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 obstacles, for instance, “in the event that they instructed us to go to the suitable and we went to the left, they’d beat us severely,” he stated.
He was made to hold provides to the entrance and accumulate 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 boys 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 stated 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 middle and went on to the Bangladeshi embassy in Moscow, which ready a journey move for him to depart the nation.
Some months later, Rahman helped his brother-in-law Jehangir Alam, who additionally spoke with AP, run away utilizing the identical methodology — leaving the hospital after being wounded and interesting to the embassy.
Households in Lakshmipur maintain tightly to the paperwork of their lacking family members, believing that at some point, when introduced to the suitable particular person, the papers would possibly unlock the trail to their return.
The paperwork included pictures of Russian enterprise visas, army contracts and military canine tags. The papers had been despatched by the lacking males, who urged family members 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 middle for contract army service, is listed as signing the contracts on behalf of the Russian army.
Of their last messages, these husbands, sons and fathers conveyed to family members that they had been being forcibly taken to the entrance strains in Ukraine. After that, all communication ceased.
The households filed a grievance with police in Dhaka and traveled on three events to the capital to stress the federal government to research.
Salma Akdar has not heard from her husband since March 26. Of their final dialog, Ajgar Hussein, 40, instructed 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 stated. He had lately returned from Saudi Arabia and deliberate to cease working abroad for a spell, she defined. However believing Russia supplied alternatives to generate income, 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 instructed his spouse he was being taken to a military camp the place they had been educated to make use of weapons and carry heavy masses as much as 80 kilograms (176 kilos). “Seeing all this, he cried so much and instructed them, ‘We can not do these items. We have now by no means carried out this earlier than,’” his spouse stated.
Mohammed Siraj holds {a photograph} of his 20-year-old son, Sajjad, who was killed after being taken to struggle in Russia, at his dwelling in Lakshmipur, Bangladesh, Dec. 10, 2025. AP-Yonhap
For 2 months after that, he was offline. He reappeared briefly to clarify they had been being pressured to struggle within the struggle.
Russian commanders “instructed him that if he didn’t go, they’d detain him, shoot him, cease offering meals,” she stated.
Households within the village confronted the recruiting agent, demanding to know why their family members had been being educated for struggle. The agent replied dismissively, saying that it was commonplace process in Russia, insisting that even launderers needed to endure related coaching.
Hussein left a last audio word for this spouse: “Please pray for me.”
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 ailing mom.
Siraj wept as he described his son begging him to ask the agent why he was being made to endure army coaching. Sajjad fought together with his Russian commanders, insisting he had come to be a chef, to not struggle. 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 stated he was being taken to battle. “That’s the final message from my son,” he stated.
In February, Siraj discovered by way of 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 nicely. However phrase unfold by way of 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 last moments.
In late 2024, households approached BRAC, a corporation that advocates for Bangladeshi staff, and stated they may not attain their family members in Russia. That prompted the group to research. It uncovered at the least 10 Bangladeshi males who’re nonetheless lacking after they had been had been lured to struggle.
“There are two or three layers of people who find themselves profiting,” stated 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 related networks, operated by Bangladeshi intermediaries with connections to the Russian authorities, are accountable 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 keeping with investigator Mostafizur Rahman. The Related Press reviewed the police report filed by one sufferer’s spouse, who stated 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 instructed AP that about 40 Bangladeshis could have misplaced their lives within the struggle.
Some go willingly, realizing they may find yourself on the entrance strains as a result of the cash is simply too good, in keeping with Rahman, the investigator.
In Lakshmipur, investigators discovered 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 stated they haven’t acquired any cash earned by their family members. Miajee too stated he was by no means paid.
“I don’t need cash or the rest,” Akdar stated. “I simply need my my youngsters’s father again.”
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