Stranded at warzone, 4 Indians seek rescue after being duped into joining Wagner Group: Report

A 22-year-old youth from Telangana and three others from Karnataka's Kalaburagi - stranded in Russia along the war-torn Ukraine border sent an SOS with a plea

Multiple Indian nationals have allegedly been tricked by foreign recruiters in Russia into joining the Wagner Group, a Russian state-funded private military company (PMC). According to a report by The Times of India, four Indians are stranded in Russia and have been forced to fight in the ongoing war. The families of these individuals have claimed that their loved ones were deceived by the recruiters, and are now left in a difficult and dangerous situation.

The TOI report added that a 22-year-old youth from Telangana and three more from Karnataka's Kalaburagi, stranded in Russia along the war-torn Ukraine border sent an SOS, seeking that they should immediately be rescued from what seems to be a fake army job racket.

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Moneycontrol could not separately verify the report.

Sufiyan sent a video to his family, in which he is seen in army fatigues. He explained that they were victims of recruitment fraud, as they were promised a job as security helpers but were forced into fighting the war in Russia. "Please save us, we are victims of a hi-tech fraud," Sufiyan pleaded in the video.

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The report said the four Indians had met recruitment agents during their visit to Dubai in 2023, where they were promised high salaries. They returned to India in November and were sent to Russia a month later, boarding a flight from Chennai on a visitor's visa.

According to sources, a group of young Indians were offered a salary of over Rs 2 lakh per month to work as army security helpers in Russia. The recruiters took a security amount of Rs 3.5 lakh from their families. But, it turned out that these four Indian nationals, along with 60 more were eventually drafted into Russia's private army during the Ukraine war without their consent.

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The youth have been posted just 40km from the Ukraine border and have sent a message to their families using a mobile phone belonging to a Russian army man. They were allegedly duped into joining the Wagner Group by a man in Maharashtra who ran a YouTube channel and offered them ‘security personnel/helper’ jobs in Russia.