India's men in the Russian army: what the government has told the Supreme Court
The families of Indian men lured into the Russian armed forces have taken their case to the Supreme Court. Here is what the government has confirmed about how many were recruited, released, and killed.
A tragedy separate from India's large student presence in Russia has been unfolding through the courts. Over the course of the Ukraine war, Indian men — labourers and job-seekers lured by agents with promises of work or visas — were funnelled into the Russian armed forces, some, their families allege, with their passports confiscated. The government has said some entered "voluntary contracts" while others were misled.
The plea before the Supreme Court concerns 26 such men. The Union government has confirmed that ten of the 26 have been killed. Across a wider group, the Ministry of External Affairs says it has secured the early release of 119 Indians, with roughly 50 more in the process, and has shared DNA samples for the identification of those reported dead or missing. In April 2025, the court directed the MEA to file a detailed status report. Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised the matter of early discharge directly with Russian authorities during his 2024 visit to Moscow.
These men are not the estimated 15,000 Indians studying medicine in Russia — a distinction that gets lost every time "Indians in Russia" makes a headline. We tell that separate, larger story in The 15,000.
