Sandeep, 29, an Indian national who was deceived by agents offering a civilian job and subsequently forced to serve in the Russian military, holding an assault rifle in Russian-occupied territory in eastern Ukraine, in September, 2025.Supplied
For two months, Manoj Singh Shekhawat’s family in Jaipur has lived between hope and dread after he vanished on the front line in eastern Ukraine.
Mr. Shekhawat, 31, is among the scores of Indian nationals who were lured by agents to Russia for work and later found themselves recruited into the Russian military.
Indian officials say more than 200 Indians have been recruited since the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022, with dozens killed or missing, even as Moscow has insisted that the recruitment of foreigners has been halted.
Mr. Shekhawat’s family last heard from him on Oct. 15, shortly before he was deployed near Kupyansk, a heavily contested stretch of eastern Ukraine.
“If I don’t message within three days, then assume that I’m dead. Gradually inform everyone. Tell my mother and father as well, but don’t keep them in too much suspense,” he is heard saying in his last voice note, shared by his cousin Ajay Singh Rathore with The Globe and Mail.
Manoj Singh Shekhawat, an Indian national who was coerced into joining the Russian military, inside a bunker in Kupyansk, a heavily contested area of eastern Ukraine, in October, 2025.Supplied
There has been no official confirmation of his death from the Russian military or the Indian embassy in Moscow.
“Some fellow soldiers and intermediaries told me he was killed in a drone attack the next day. But they have no evidence to prove it,” Mr. Rathore said.
Mr. Shekhawat left his home on July 4 after an Indian agent promised him work at a packaging company in Moscow, Mr. Rathore said. He travelled on a one-month e-visa and upon arriving, and was handed over to agents in Russia working for the same recruitment company. When the e-visa expired, his ordeal began.
Mr. Rathore said the agents eventually steered Mr. Shekhawat toward the military, assuring him that enlisting would prevent him from being arrested by Russian police for overstaying his visa.
“They told him he would be digging bunkers, nothing dangerous,” Mr. Rathore said. Instead, he was sent for combat training. “That’s when he realized he had been trapped.”
A screengrab from a video showing Manoj Singh Shekhawat, right, and another Indian man in military fatigues moving through Russian military bunkers in Kupyansk, in October, 2025.Supplied
In a video shared with his cousin, Mr. Shekhawat and other Indians in uniform appeal for rescue, saying the agents deceived them. In a related voice note, he says that he was beaten and threatened with a 20-year jail sentence for resisting deployment to eastern Ukraine.
Since he last contacted them, Mr. Shekhawat’s family have feared the worst, though they are still hopeful that he might return.
“As long as we don’t see him, we cannot accept that he is gone,” said his father, Vikram Singh Shekhawat. “Every day, we ask ourselves the same question, is he alive somewhere or is he lying where no one can reach him?”
The uncertainty surrounding Mr. Shekhawat’s fate is shared by dozens of Indian families whose relatives disappeared after being recruited into the Russian armed forces, often after being promised civilian jobs abroad.
On Dec. 18, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said that at least 202 Indian nationals were believed to have been recruited into the Russian military since 2022. Of them, 26 have been killed and seven remain missing.
A screengrab from a video showing Manoj Singh Shekhawat, left, inside a Russian military truck with other Indian men.Supplied
“Concerted efforts by the government have resulted in the early discharge of 119 individuals,” junior foreign minister Kirti Vardhan Singh told the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian parliament. “Efforts are ongoing for the discharge of 50 more.”
The details were disclosed in response to mounting pressure from families, lawmakers and the media, as bodies of Indian nationals killed in the Russia-Ukraine war began returning home.
On Dec. 17, the remains of Rakesh Maurya, 30, and Ajay Godara, 22, from northern India, arrived in New Delhi. Both had travelled to Russia on student visas and were later enlisted after being promised civilian jobs.
Sandeep, 29, an athlete who is well-known in his community and goes only by his first name, left the village of Taimurpur in the north Indian state of Haryana on July 2, after an agent promised him a job as an army chef in Moscow.
Instead, within two weeks arriving in Moscow, Sandeep was pressed to fight in the Russian army. According to his uncle, Shri Bhagwan, he was paid the equivalent of US$11,000 as an advance, and a monthly salary of US$2,800 under a one-year agreement.
“He agreed because he believed he would be working as a chef for the Russian army and that it would be safe,” said Mr. Bhagwan. “But once he signed the contract, they sent him to Ivanovo city for weapons training.”
Sandeep sitting inside a military bunker in Russian-occupied territory in eastern Ukraine.Supplied
During his three months of training, his uncle said, Sandeep realized he was being prepared for combat rather than kitchen work. His phone was confiscated and he was allowed to call home only occasionally using his commander’s phone.
His family last spoke to him on Oct. 1. “He told me he had been deceived,” Mr. Bhagwan said, adding Sandeep told him that Russian commanders had sent them on night patrols through minefields, with Ukrainian drones constantly overhead.
“He told me that if a drone picked up even a slight movement, people would be killed instantly,” Mr. Bhagwan said.
Before the call ended, Mr. Bhagwan said Sandeep asked to speak to his mother. “He told me to take care of the family. He said he didn’t think he would come back from the war, and he asked me to keep pressing the Indian government for our rescue because getting out seemed impossible.”
Russian military social centres, established in 2023, are meant to assist families of wounded or deceased soldiers. They provide documents needed for courts to declare missing soldiers dead, a prerequisite for compensation. But Russia has not updated its official war casualty figures since March, and even Russian families struggle to obtain information.
Back in the village of Gokulpura in Jaipur, Mr. Shekhawat’s wife, Divya, clings to hope.
“I believe he is alive,” she said, her voice breaking. “Maybe he is a prisoner of war.”