ARTE Documentary Follows Indian Families Searching for Sons Lost in Russia's Army

A documentary published by the European broadcaster ARTE on its YouTube channel on October 12, 2026, follows Indian men recruited into the Russian army and the families who are trying to find out what happened to them. ARTE reporters travelled to villages in northern India, to Moscow, and to the southern state of Kerala. The film says India's government has identified about 200 of its citizens in Russian ranks, but that the real number is probably much higher. 

Sonu Sheoran: Dead Three Days After Reaching the Front

The film opens at the cremation of Sonu Sheoran, a 28-year-old from northern India, who came from a farming family and wanted to leave the fields. ARTE says youth unemployment in his region is 15% and that his veterinary degree did not get him a job. Like millions of Indians each year, it says, he decided to go abroad to escape poverty. His brother, Bika Sheoran, says Sonu went to Russia to take a Russian course and work alongside it.

ARTE reports that Sonu was drawn by a salary of 2,000, ten times India's average wage, and enlisted as a security agent. He had 10 to 15 days of training, according to his family, and was killed in a drone attack just three days after reaching the front. 

Aman Punia: A Video and a Document

ARTE says Aman Punia, 24, was also forced to enlist. Around Diwali he posted a video saying he had been enrolled in "another army," that many people had been killed around him, and that that he could get killed at any time. His family has a document from the Russian Defence Ministry saying he joined the army in August 2025 and was given an automatic weapon. They do not know his unit. In a call shown in the film, a man helping the family says they need a copy of his contract, because the Russian government denies that these men were recruited there.

A Brother's Search

ARTE also profiles a man who has spent two years helping Indian families trace missing relatives, after his own brother disappeared in the Donbas in spring 2024. The man travelled to Russia and visited a morgue in Rostov, where he says bodies lay stacked in boxes, some he believed were up to two years old, and he says many Indians' bodies are probably still unrecovered. His brother, sent to the front as a sniper, died in March 2024 in the occupied part of Luhansk region; he brought the body home for cremation.

Passports Taken, Stuck Outside Moscow

In Moscow, ARTE followed Indian men trapped by the terms of their army contracts. Sayid Husin had just returned from five months in a unit tasked with shooting down Ukrainian drones. The film says he and another man have had their passports confiscated by Russian authorities and are stuck in a flat on the outskirts of the city. One of the two says he took the war as an opportunity: he had a master's degree and could not find a good job in India. About 100,000 Indians have moved to Russia for work in the last three years, ARTE says.

A Safe Way Out

Indians and other foreign nationals lured into Russia's armed forces have an option to safely escape the battlefield with Ukraine's "I Want to Live" project. See our FAQ for more recommendations.