The Kremlin Promises to Send India's Recruits Home. It Made the Same Promise in 2024.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Indian journalists on September 8, 2026 that Russia is compiling a list of Indian citizens still serving on the battlefield and will send them home once they're identified, saying Moscow is in "very deep and profound contact" with India on the issue, according to the Tribune. India's foreign ministry responded that around two dozen Indians remain in the Russian army and that it has taken the matter up with Moscow.

A Promise Russia Already Made

Russia has been here before. During Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Russia in July 2024, Vladimir Putin agreed to facilitate the release of Indians who had allegedly been deceived into joining the Russian military. Fresh cases kept surfacing anyway: in September 2025, India reported new instances of its nationals being recruited and pressed Moscow again to stop it. By December 2025, the head of India's Ministry of External Affairs put the total recruited at 202. The Tribune's latest figures, citing Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, put it at 227 - of whom 139 have been released, 51 have died, and the status of the rest is unclear.

Recruitment That Didn't Stop

In February 2026, IStories reported that Russia had restricted mercenary recruitment from roughly 40 "friendly" countries, India included - itself an admission the recruitment hadn't stopped. Days before Peskov's latest pledge, on September 5, 2026, Russian police detained Chandan Gupta, an engineer from Kanpur working in Moscow, and his wife said officers were pressuring him to join the army; we previously reported on the detention itself. He was released and returned home on September 9, 2026 - not through any Kremlin repatriation effort, but after his employer, UFlex, hired a lawyer on his behalf, his wife said. Putin is due in India to meet Modi on September 11, 2026, and the recruitment issue is expected to come up in their talks.

The List Russia Says It Needs

Ukraine's "I Want to Live" project already has what Russia claims it's still compiling. In a June 3, 2025 post, the project said it had identified 111 Indian citizens who had fought for Russia against Ukraine and confirmed seven of them dead - among them Ravi Moon, a 22-year-old killed in the spring of 2024. It says Indians were recruited the same way as Nepali and Sri Lankan citizens before them: offers of transport or construction jobs, or student visas, followed on arrival in Russia by pressure to sign a contract with its Ministry of Defense and deployment to the front.

The table below reproduces the list the project published, giving each man's name, date of birth, tag number, contract date, and date of death where known. Note that the names were originally published in Russian and translated into English and Hindu, so minor spelling variations may apply. 

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. Find out more about how servicemen in Russia's army can save their lives here.