Ukrainian servicemen ride atop on a tank after returning from Russia near the Russian-Ukrainian border.
| Photo Credit: AP
Indian officials on Tuesday said they were seeking more details about an Indian national who appeared on camera claiming he had been detained by Ukrainian authorities while fighting for the Russian army.
The 22-year-old, identified as Majoti Sahil Mohammed from Gujarat, was named after the video carrying his statement went viral online. India has repeatedly raised with Moscow the issue of its nationals serving in the Russian army and urged their repatriation, but this is the first instance of an Indian fighting on the Russian side being captured by Ukraine and made to confess on video.
“The Indian Mission in Kyiv is ascertaining the veracity of the report. It has not yet received any formal communication from the Ukrainian side in this regard,” said an official source on the Indian citizen reportedly captured by Ukrainian forces.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has been cautioning against unscrupulous immigration agencies that lure young professionals abroad with fake job offers. Since the escalation of the war in Ukraine, The Hindu has reported on how young men from across India were duped with such offers in Russia and ended up at the battlefront.
The matter figured in official discussions most recently when External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar visited Russia from August 19-21, 2025, to co-chair the 26th Session of the IRIGC-TEC (India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation) with Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov. He also met Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The MEA said Mr. Jaishankar sought “expeditious resolution” of the “pending cases” involving Indian men serving in the Russian Army.
On September 26, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that 27 Indian nationals were serving in the Russian army. “We are also in close touch with their family members in this matter,” Mr. Jaiswal said.
Earlier, on July 24, the MEA informed the Rajya Sabha that 127 Indian nationals were in the Russian military forces, of which the services of 98 had been discontinued as a result of sustained engagement between the Indian and Russian governments, including at the highest levels. The MEA had added that at least 12 Indian men were reported missing by the Russian side.
Indian men who had made video appeals from the conflict zone earlier claimed that several of their colleagues had perished in battle, though these assertions were not accompanied by physical evidence.
Published – October 08, 2025 04:19 pm IST
