An Associated Press investigation found that Bangladeshi migrant workers were lured to Russia with false promises of civilian jobs — as janitors, cleaners, and chefs — only to be coerced into military service and sent to fight on the front lines of the Ukraine war. Three workers who escaped told AP they were presented with Russian military contracts upon arrival in Moscow, sent to army camps for weapons training, and threatened with violence, imprisonment, and death when they resisted. Documents including travel papers, military contracts, medical reports, and photographs corroborated the accounts.
The deception reveals a new dimension of the Ukraine conflict: the recruitment of foreign migrant workers as forced combatants. Bangladesh police identified a trafficking ring involving Bangladeshi intermediaries with Russian government connections, and investigators estimate that about 40 Bangladeshis may have died in the war, while at least 10 remain missing.
Maksudur Rahman needed work. The labor market in his hometown in the Lakshmipur district of Bangladesh offered little, and savings from his previous job in Malaysia had run out. When a labor recruiter approached him with an opportunity to work as a janitor at a military camp in Russia, promising $1,000 to $1,500 a month and possible permanent residency, he accepted.
Rahman took out a loan and paid 1.2 million Bangladeshi taka—approximately $9,800—to the recruiter. He traveled to Moscow in December 2024, expecting to begin civilian work.
Instead, within weeks, he found himself on the front lines of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The Deception
An Associated Press investigation documented how this deception unfolded for Rahman and dozens of other Bangladeshi workers. Upon arriving in Moscow, Rahman and three other Bangladeshi workers were presented with a document in Russian. Believing it was an employment contract, they signed. The document was actually a military service agreement.
They were transported to an army facility where Russian military personnel issued them weapons and conducted three days of training in drone warfare, medical evacuation, and basic combat skills. After training, the group moved to a barrack near the Russia-Ukraine border for additional preparation.
When Rahman and two others were sent to front-line positions, they were ordered to dig pits inside a reinforced bunker. Missiles flew overhead. Bombs fell kilometers away.
“The Russians would take a group of say, five Bangladeshis. They would send us in front and stay at the back themselves,” Rahman said, describing how the workers were positioned as advance forces.
When Rahman protested the work he was being forced to do, a Russian commander responded through a translation app: “Your agent sent you here. We bought you.”
False Promises Under Threat
Rahman’s experience was not isolated. The AP investigation found that Bangladeshi workers were lured to Russia under false job pretenses, then coerced into military service under threat of violence.
Mohan Miajee initially arrived to work as an electrician for a gas-processing plant in the Russian far east. The work was grueling. When a Russian army recruiter contacted him online, Miajee expressed reluctance to kill. The recruiter assured him that his electrical skills made him ideal for electronic warfare or drone operations—work far from combat.
Miajee signed the military papers. In January 2025, he was transported to a military camp in Avdiivka, a captured Ukrainian city. When he presented documents to the camp commander and asked to do electrical work, the commander’s response was blunt: “You have been made to sign a contract to join the battalion. You cannot do any other work here. You have been deceived.”
Miajee said he was beaten with shovels, handcuffed, and tortured in a basement cell whenever he refused an order or made a mistake. Language barriers made compliance uncertain. “If they told us to go to the right and we went to the left, they would beat us severely,” he said. He was forced to carry supplies to the front and collect dead bodies.
Escape and Wounds
Weeks into his deployment, Rahman’s unit was ordered to evacuate a wounded Russian soldier. As they carried him from the position, Ukrainian drones appeared overhead, then swarms of them. Rahman could not advance or return to the bunker—the commander warned that land mines covered the area. The Russian soldier guiding them fled. Rahman was wounded in the attack.
Transported to a hospital near Moscow, Rahman made his escape. He went directly to the Bangladeshi embassy, which prepared documents allowing him to leave the country. He returned home after seven months of forced military service.
His brother-in-law, Jehangir Alam, followed months later—wounded in combat, hospitalized, escaped through the embassy, returned to Bangladesh.
The Families Left Behind
Not all workers escaped. Ajgar Hussein, 40, left Bangladesh in mid-December 2024 with a promise of work as a laundry attendant. He had recently returned from Saudi Arabia and planned to stop overseas work temporarily, but the Russian opportunity seemed too promising. He sold land to pay the recruiter’s fees.
For two weeks, Hussein communicated regularly with his wife, Salma Akdar. Then his messages changed. He told her he was at an army camp where workers were being trained with weapons and forced to carry loads up to 80 kilograms. “Seeing all this, he cried a lot and told them, ‘We cannot do these things. We have never done this before,’” Akdar said.
Two months of silence followed. Hussein reappeared briefly to say he was being forced to fight. Russian commanders threatened to detain him, shoot him, and stop providing food if he refused. His final communication was an audio message: “Please pray for me.”
On March 26, Akdar heard from Hussein again. He said he was being taken to the front lines. “That is the last message from him,” she said.
For Mohammed Siraj, 20-year-old Sajjad left for Russia believing he would work as a chef. The family needed the income—Siraj was unemployed and Sajjad’s mother was chronically ill. Sajjad begged his father to ask why he was undergoing military training. When he insisted he came to cook, not fight, Russian commanders threatened him with prison and shooting.
Sajjad told the family he was being taken to battle. “That is the last message from my son,” Siraj said.
In February 2025, another Bangladeshi worker serving alongside Sajjad informed Siraj that his son had been killed in a drone attack. Unable to tell his wife the truth, Siraj said their son was doing well. But word spread. When she learned the truth, she confronted him: “You lied to me.” Soon after, she died, calling out for her son.
Documentation and Investigation
The accounts from Rahman, Miajee, and others were corroborated by documents the AP obtained, including travel papers, Russian military contracts, medical and police reports, and photographs showing injuries sustained during battles.
Major Vladimir Yaltsev, head of the Kostroma regional recruitment center for contract military service, is listed as signing the military contracts on behalf of the Russian military, according to documents verified by two Russian organizations assisting men in evading military service.
When the AP attempted to obtain official responses, neither the Russian Defense Ministry, the Russian Foreign Ministry, nor the Bangladesh government responded to detailed questions about the recruitment scheme.
Scale and Networks
Bangladesh police investigators uncovered the trafficking ring after a Bangladeshi man returned in January 2025 alleging deception. Police identified at least nine additional people lured into military service. An investigator told the AP that approximately 40 Bangladeshis may have died in the Ukraine war.
Officials and activists said Russia has also targeted men from other South Asian and African countries, including India and Nepal.
The investigator discovered that a local agent was funneling recruits to a central agent associated with a company called SP Global. The company did not respond to AP calls and emails. Investigators later found SP Global ceased operations in 2025.
According to Shariful Islam, head of BRAC’s migration program—an organization advocating for Bangladeshi workers—a layered network of intermediaries was profiting from the scheme. “There are two or three layers of people who are profiting,” he said.
BRAC identified at least 10 Bangladeshi men still missing after being lured to fight in Ukraine.
The Cost of Desperation
In Lakshmipur and other Bangladeshi districts, overseas work is essential. Nearly every family has at least one member employed abroad as a migrant worker. Fathers leave for years, returning home only briefly. Sons and daughters support entire families with money earned overseas.
This economic desperation made workers vulnerable. Families in Lakshmipur now hold documents—visas, military contracts, army dog tags—sent by missing loved ones, hoping these papers might one day unlock their return.
None of the families have received any money their men earned during military service. Rahman emphasized what the families now want most: “I don’t want money or anything else. I just want my children’s father back.”
This work is released under the Creative Commons CC0 license — a public domain dedication.