In December 2023, Indian student Sahil Majodhi arrived in Russia to pursue higher studies, months after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Majodhi will become one of dozens of Indians lured to serve the Russian army and deployed to Ukraine. He quickly surrendered to the Ukrainian authorities and maintained that he never intended to fight and wanted to return to India.
Majudhi’s case first came to light this year after Ukrainian authorities released a video in which he identified himself as an Indian from Morbi district in Gujarat. He appealed to the Indian government to bring him home. Since then, his family has continued legal and diplomatic efforts to secure his repatriation, even as his mother, Hasina Bano, a single mother, undergoes cancer treatment and has been diagnosed with heart complications.
The recruitment of Indians into the Russian armed forces has sparked Indo-Russian relations. Indian citizens were lured to serve in the Russian army under pretexts such as lucrative salaries, bonuses, and promises of citizenship. The number of Indian workers in Russia has swelled to 100,000 in recent months. Some of them were recruited as cleaners, plumbers and construction workers, and were lured by jobs in the Russian army.
In December 2025, the government informed Parliament that 26 Indians serving in the Russian armed forces had been killed, and seven were reported missing. The number of dead rose to 32 by April, and those missing to 12. According to an official count, 214 Indians were conscripted into the Russian army. India was able to extract 135 of them and release them.
In April, HT reported that the Indian side was currently tracking 35 “active cases” of Indians serving in the Russian army to ensure their release. The bodies of three Indians killed on the front lines in Ukraine have been returned to India since February.
Bano’s lawyer, Supreme Court lawyer Dipa Joseph, has written a letter to the Ukrainian Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights to facilitate Majudhi’s repatriation from a Ukrainian POW camp, citing humanitarian reasons and his mother’s deteriorating health.
The letter blamed “circumstances” for Majodhi’s arrest and deployment to Ukraine without his “informed or voluntary consent.” She added that he later surrendered and confirmed that he never intended to participate in the conflict.
Referring to Banu’s health problems, Joseph said that Magudi’s mother is completely dependent on her only son. She added that Bano’s health had deteriorated during his long absence.
The Delhi High Court sought a status report from the Ministry of External Affairs and the Indian Embassy in Russia after Pannu sought directions to repatriate Majodhi. The authorities informed the court that they were awaiting contact from the Ukrainian authorities through diplomatic channels before submitting a full report on the situation. The court is scheduled to hear the case on July 13.
Joseph urged the Ukrainian authorities to consider humanitarian measures available under Ukrainian law and international humanitarian principles to facilitate Majudhi’s early repatriation so that he can be reunited with his sick mother.
