Thrissur:

Three people were arrested on Saturday in connection with the death of a man from Kerala, who had joined the military support service in Russia.

Sandeep Thomas, Sumesh Antony, and Sibi, all natives of Thrissur, were arrested for allegedly recruiting youths to Russia with promises of high-paying jobs, police said.

The trio was summoned by the Wadakkanchery police, who made the arrests after detailed interrogations.

The arrests followed a complaint filed by Joicy John, the wife of Binil T B, who died while serving in the Russian Military Support Service, and Kurian, the father of Jain T K, who was injured and is currently undergoing treatment in Moscow.

The accused have been charged under the Emigration Act, human trafficking, and cheating, police said.

Binil (32) and Jain (27), both ITI mechanical diploma holders, traveled to Russia on April 4 with the hope of working as electricians and plumbers. However, upon arrival, their Indian passports were confiscated, and they were subsequently deployed to the war zone as part of the Russian Military Support Service, according to relatives.

Binil had informed his family that he and his companion were assigned to front-line service on the war front.

The news of Binil’s death came on January 13, as efforts continued to repatriate him and his cousin-in-law, Jain, who were stranded in the Russia-Ukraine war zone.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Mumbai:

One Indian apparently recruited by the Russian army has been killed while another was receiving treatment for injuries at a hospital in Moscow, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

India has “strongly taken up” the matter with Russian authorities in Moscow and with the Russian Embassy in New Delhi while reiterating its demand for the early discharge of remaining Indian nationals serving in the Russian army, the ministry said in a statement.

“We are working with the Russian authorities for early transportation of the mortal remains to India,” the ministry said. “We have also sought the early discharge and repatriation to India of the injured person.” Both came from Kerala, the statement said.

Cops in May arrested four people linked to a network of human traffickers on suspicion of luring young men to Russia with the promise of lucrative jobs or university places only to force them to fight in the war with Ukraine.

After the deaths of Indian nationals last year in the war, New Delhi demanded that there be a verified halt to the recruitment of Indian nationals by the Russian army and urged Indians to exercise caution while seeking employment in Russia.

About 45 Indian nationals were discharged from the Russian army and efforts were underway to get a further 50 released, the foreign ministry said in September.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

File picture of North Korean soldiers marching for the 70th anniversary of the nation’s founding day in Pyongyang, North Korea
| Photo Credit: AP

North Korea has sent about 10,000 troops to Russia to train and likely fight against Ukraine within “the next several weeks,” the U.S. Pentagon said Monday (October 28, 2024), in a move that Western leaders say will intensify the almost three-year war and jolt relations in the Indo-Pacific region.

Some of the North Korean soldiers have already moved closer to Ukraine, Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said, and were believed to be heading for the Kursk border region, where Russia has been struggling to push back a Ukrainian incursion.

Earlier Monday, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte NATO confirmed recent Ukrainian intelligence reports that some North Korean military units were already in the Kursk region.

Adding thousands of North Korean soldiers to Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II will pile more pressure on Ukraine’s weary and overstretched army. It will also stoke geopolitical tensions in the Korean Peninsula and the wider Indo-Pacific region, including Japan and Australia, Western officials say.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is keen to reshape global power dynamics. He sought to build a counterbalance to Western influence with a summit of BRICS countries, including the leaders of China and India, in Russia last week. He has sought direct help for the war from Iran, which has supplied drones, and North Korea, which has shipped large amounts of ammunition, according to Western governments.

Mr. Rutte told reporters in Brussels that the North Korean deployment represents “a significant escalation” in Pyongyang’s involvement in the conflict and “a dangerous expansion of Russia’s war.”

U.S. President Joe Biden also called the deployment “dangerous. Very dangerous.”

U.S. officials to meet South Korean counterparts

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet with their South Korean counterparts later this week in Washington.

Ms. Singh said Mr. Austin and Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun will discuss the deployment of North Korean soldiers in Ukraine. There will be no limitations on the use of U.S.-provided weapons on those forces, Singh said.

“If we see DPRK troops moving in towards the front lines, they are co-belligerents in the war,” Ms. Singh said, using the acronym for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or North Korea. “This is a calculation that North Korea has to make.”

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov shrugged off Mr. Rutte’s comments and noted that Pyongyang and Moscow signed a joint security pact last June. He stopped short of confirming North Korean soldiers were in Russia.

Mr. Lavrov claimed that Western military instructors long have been covertly deployed to Ukraine to help its military use long-range weapons provided by Western partners.

New Delhi:

Eighty-five Indian nationals have been discharged from the Russian military so far and efforts are on to secure the release of 20 more Indians, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said on Monday.

The Indian side is expected to take up the issue of discharge of the remaining Indians when Prime Minister Narendra Modi holds a bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday on the margins of the BRICS Summit in the Russian city of Kazan, people familiar with the matter said.

PM Modi had strongly raised the issue of early discharge of the Indian nationals working in the Russian Army during his talks with Putin in Moscow in July.

The Indian side is in “very close touch” with interlocutors in the foreign and defence ministries of Russia on the issue of Indians “who were, illegally or otherwise, contracted into fighting in the Russian Army”, Mr Misri said at a media briefing on PM Modi’s visit to Russia for the BRICS Summit.

The prime minister will leave for Kazan on Tuesday morning.

“Our understanding, at the present moment, as per present information, is that about 85 people have returned from Russia. Unfortunately, we have also had the return of some mortal remains of people who lost their lives during the conflict,” Mr Misri said.

“Our understanding is that nearly 20 people still remain (in the Russian Army) and we are pressing our interlocutors for an early discharge of all remaining Indians in the armed forces there,” he said.

Nine Indians have died while serving in the Russian Army, according to official data.

In August, the Russian embassy said Moscow and New Delhi are working in close coordination for an early “identification and discharge” of the Indian nationals who voluntarily joined contractual work in the military service and now want to return home.

Since April, the ministry of defence of the Russian Federation has stopped recruiting citizens of a number of foreign countries, including India, into the military service, it said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Earlier this week, Russian Army announced the capture of three villages in the east, southeast and northeast of Ukraine.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Russia on Sunday claimed its troops had captured a village in southern Ukraine, continuing its progress on the front line against a Ukrainian army lacking troops and ammunition.

“Units of the Eastern forces have liberated the settlement of Zagrine in the Zaporizhzhia region and occupied more favourable positions,” the Russian defence ministry said in its daily report.

The Russian army has been gaining ground for months in Ukraine, particularly in the east, without however achieving a real breakthrough.

Earlier this week, it announced the capture of three villages in the east, southeast and northeast of Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said this week that his troops had conquered nearly 880 square kilometres (340 square miles) of land since the start of the year.

Russia also launched an offensive in the Kharkiv region on May 10, seizing several localities before their advance was slowed by reinforcements sent in by Kyiv.

Ukrainian troops have been facing shortages of soldiers and ammunition for months, despite Western pledges of arms deliveries.

A British man who flew to Russia to fight alongside Vladimir Putin’s forces in Ukraine has said he’s willing to die for the cause, Metro reported. Notably, British citizen Aiden Minnis, 37, is a former National Front member and convicted criminal from Chippenham, Wiltshire. He claimed that he’s  ”doing the Lord’s work” after joining the Russian army in January.

He said his fellow soldiers are his brothers, adding, ”I trust them and will die for them. They have proven themselves and helped me a lot. We understand each other. A bit of pidgin English and pidgin Russian and sign language. It gets done.”

Mr Minnis has multiple charges, ranging from dangerous driving causing the deaths of two people, a racist attack and beating up a homeless man.

Another British citizen Ben Stimson, 48, is also known to be fighting in Ukraine for Vladimir Putin’s regime. Both are understood to be in the Donbas region, which is under Russian occupation.

In a video, Mr Stimson, from Oldham, Manchester, said, ”Every man takes his choice… a lot of us, the foreign volunteers, have chosen to come over to this side, to the Russian side.”

According to BBC, he was previously jailed in the UK in 2015 for joining pro-Russian separatists in the east of Ukraine. Subsequently, his family cut off all communication with him. 

His father said, ”I’ve cut him off. Before I cut him off he was in Moscow. I’ve been looking after Ben on and off for years and years. He’s on his own now. He’s 48 now, he can do what he wants. He’s been a constant worry. I want a bit of peace at my age. You never know what he’ll do next.”

The two men have also posted several videos of them on social media,  posing with grenades, and various flags and even showing two dead bodies.

A spokesperson for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said: “Reports of British nationals taking part in Putin’s illegal invasion are shocking and their alleged actions are reprehensible. Those who travel from the UK to conflict zones to engage in unlawful activity should expect to be investigated upon their return.”

Both of them have been branded traitors by a former British Army commander. If either of the two men came back to the UK, they would be arrested under the Foreign Enlistment Act of 1870. 

However, Mr Minnis said he had no plans to return to the UK and is in the process of obtaining a Russian passport.

Russian law enforcement officers stand guard on the roof of a building near a damaged multi-storey block of flats following an alleged drone attack in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on March 2, 2024. File
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Russia said on Saturday it had destroyed 47 Ukrainian drones over its southern regions overnight, mostly in the Rostov area bordering Ukraine.

Kyiv has regularly launched drones into Russia during Moscow’s military offensive in Ukraine, now in its third year.

“Air defence systems on duty intercepted and destroyed over the territories of Belgorod region (one drone), Kursk region (two drones), Volgograd region (three drones) and Rostov region (41 drones),” the Russian army said on social media.

The southern Rostov region is a hub for the Russian army to plan its military operations in Ukraine.

Rostov governor Vasily Golubev said on social media that a drone attack had hit the city of Taganrog, on the Azov Sea near a Russian-occupied part of Ukraine.

He said a rescue worker was wounded but there were “no dead”.

Social media channels close to the Russian army said Ukraine had targeted an aviation plant in Taganrog.

“In Taganrog, in all likelihood, the target of raid was the Beriev aviation plant,” Telegram channel Rybar, with close army links, said.

The channel also alleged that another target was a military air base further into Russia in the town of Morozovsk.

Authorities in the Kursk region, which lies further north and also borders Ukraine, said a clinic had been damaged in the main city of Kursk.

Regional governor Roman Starovoyt posted a video of himself outside “polyclinic number 6 in Kursk”. The top of the green building was visibly damaged.

“Luckily, everyone is alive,” Starovoyt said, adding that medics had evacuated patients from a nearby hospital.

Kursk is a city of around 440,000 people, around 120 kilometres (75 miles) from the Ukraine border.

A resident of Kupwara who joined as a security helper with the Russian Army last year. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

“Two Russia-based agents involved in the human-trafficking network that pushed Indians into the Ukraine war zone are under the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) scanner,” officials said on March 8.

“The agents allegedly confiscated the passports of Indians arriving in Russia and forced them to fight with the armed forces,” officials said. The network was busted by the CBI on March 7.

“Christina and Moinuddin Chippa, a resident of Rajasthan, are based in Russia and were facilitating the trafficking of Indian youth to Russia by offering them lucrative job opportunities there,” officials said.

“The Central probe agency’s FIR has listed 17 other Visa consultancy companies, their owners and agents spread across India,” they said.

Watch | Two years of Russia-Ukraine war: How Russia and the world are changing

The agency has booked them under Indian Penal Code Sections related to criminal conspiracy, cheating and human trafficking. The CBI has alleged that the accused persons through their agents trafficked Indian nationals to Russia on the pretext of getting jobs related to the Russian Army, security guards, helpers, better life, and education and a huge amount was charged from these people illegally.

The agents also duped students by providing them admission to dubious private Universities in Russia instead of government or public Universities by offering discounted fees, and visa extensions and ultimately leaving them “at the mercy” of local agents.

Once these aspirants reached Russia their passports were seized by the agents there and they were forced to join the armed forces after combat role training.

“They were being trained in combat roles and provided with Russian Army uniforms and batches. Thereafter, these Indian nationals are being deployed at front bases in the Russia-Ukraine War Zone against their wishes and put their lives in grave danger,” the CBI FIR said. The Central Bureau of Investigation on March 7 had busted the trafficking network.

They said the agency has found 35 instances in which youngsters were taken to Russia after being lured with false promises of high-paying jobs via social media channels and local contacts and agents.

After filing the FIR, the CBI conducted countrywide searches at 13 locations across Delhi, Thiruvananthapuram, Mumbai, Ambala, Chandigarh, Madurai and Chennai. “The human-trafficking network of these agents is spread over several States across the country and they are operating in an organised manner,” the spokesperson had said.

The Central probe agency has booked 24×7 RAS Overseas Foundation in Delhi and its director Suyash Mukut, OSD Bros Travels and Visa Services Private Limited in Mumbai and its director Rakesh Pandey, Adventure Visa Services Private Limited in Chandigarh and its director Manjeet Singh and Baba Vlogs Overseas Recruitment Solutions Private Limited in Dubai and its director Faisal Abdul Mutalib Khan alias Baba among others.

“It has been ascertained that some of the victims also suffered grievous injuries in the war zone,” the official had said.

“So far, cash worth more than ₹50 lakh, incriminating documents and electronic records such as laptops, mobiles, desktops and CCTV footage have been seized. Searches are going on. Certain suspects have also been detained for questioning at various locations,” he had added.

In the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, a video of a “tank duel” is gaining traction on social media. The clip has been posted on X (formerly Twitter) by Ukraine’s Defence Ministry and shows a fight between a Ukrainian T-64BV and a Russia’s T-72B3. The Ukrainian tank emerged victorious in the close encounter, which unfolded in a rural area. The confrontation was intense in southern Ukraine, where Kyiv’s military forces are strategically manoeuvring armoured units to breach Russia’s defensive positions.

“A tank duel. A Ukrainian T-64BV knocked down the occupiers’ T-72B3 at close range,” Ukraine’s defence ministry said in the post, crediting the gripping footage to 128th Mountain Assault Brigade.

A tank duel.
A Ukrainian T-64BV knocked down the occupiers’ T-72B3 at close range.

128th Mountain Assault Brigade pic.twitter.com/9TPB098aAZ

— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) September 20, 2023

Newsweek cited a report from RBC-Ukraine to say that the action unfolded on the southeastern front of Zaporizhzhia, a region that has been a focal point of Ukrainian offensive operations since early June.

The video shows the Russian tank firing along the length of the tree line, its barrel parallel to the dense foliage that concealed the Ukrainian tank metres away. The Ukrainian tank appeared to be lining up for a decisive shot on the enemy tank.

The Ukrainian tank fired two rounds into the side of the Russian T-72B3, seemingly immobilising it. White smoke billowed from the hatches of the Russian tank, indicative of a breach in its armoured hull. The Ukrainian tank then moved away towards the tree line. The dramatic takedown was captured from multiple angles by at least two drones, said the Newsweek report.

On Monday, Ukraine’s defence ministry said it had recaptured a total of seven square kilometres (nearly three square miles) last week near the eastern town of Bakhmut and also along the southern front.

US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said that the Ukrainian counteroffensive “continues to make steady forward progress”.

Kyiv has, meanwhile, stepped up efforts to boost domestic weapons production because 19 months of war has created a huge demand for arms and ammunition to fend off Russian attacks along a 1,000 km front line. Russian air strikes across Ukraine have caused widespread damage and killed many people.

Ukraine currently depends heavily on western military support and has received a number of tanks and ammunition system from the US and its allies in its fight against Russia.