Twenty-year-old Ainabek went to Russia expecting to work as a security guard. A group ...

Twenty-year-old Ainabek went to Russia expecting to work as a security guard. A group of other young Kazakh men found jobs at a sausage factory and a poultry farm. It might seem like a common practice for Central Asians to go to a neighboring country for work, except that for several years now there has been one “but”.

Neither Ainabek nor his fellow victims worked a single day at the jobs they had been promised. They all ended up in the combat zone in Ukraine wearing Russian military uniforms, and their relatives are now having to demand that the country’s authorities bring them home.

The scale of Russia’s recruitment of Central Asian citizens continues to grow. According to our data, more than 13,000 people from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan have already passed through the occupation army after signing contracts with the Russian Defense Ministry. Many of them have been killed. Dozens of people from the region are also being held as prisoners of war in Ukraine.

Journalists from The Times of Central Asia investigated the methods Russia uses to lure people into a war that is not theirs, what awaits them when they return, and why the response of Central Asian governments to this problem remains ambiguous.

As a reminder, if you or someone close to you has already ended up in the Russian army and you do not want to fight against Ukraine, contact the “I Want to Live” project. Ukraine offers everyone a chance to save themselves and return home alive, regardless of skin color, citizenship, nationality, or religion.

➡️ Save your life and surrender: t.me/kak\sdatsya\bot The "I Want to Live" project on social media:😎 FB 🕊 Twitter 📹 YouTube 🥳TikTok🕊Instagram📞Viber 🏢WhatsApp (backup)

The Times Of Central Asia

They Went to Russia for Work and Ended Up at War: How Central Asians Enter the Russian Military

Twenty-year-old Ainabek Keldibek went to Russia expecting to work as a security guard. Relatives of other young Kazakh men say they had taken jobs at a