A Bangladeshi police investigator told the Associated Press about 40 Bangladeshis may have died after recruiters sent men to Russia with promises of civilian jobs, then pushed them into Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Three men who escaped said they took loans or sold property to pay agents, then were made to sign Russian-language military contracts they did not understand. They said they were taken to camps for basic training that included drone tactics, then deployed toward the front.
The men said they were forced to carry supplies, dig positions, evacuate wounded soldiers and collect bodies, and some Bangladeshis were used as human shields. One man said a Russian commander told him through a translation app: “Your agent sent you here. We bought you.”