More Nepalis in Russian Army killed in action

If and when there is a European peacekeeping force in Ukraine, the British Army’s Gurkha soldiers deployed there could be in a theatre of war in which fellow Nepalis have been fighting for both sides.

Three years into the conflict, there are at least 1,000 Nepali mercenaries in the Russian Army and a few on the Ukrainian side. About 70 of them have been killed, 180 injured are being treated in hospitals in Russia, dozens have deserted, and there are four prisoners of war captured by the Ukrainians.

Reports in the British press last week quoted Defence Secretary John Healy announcing the formation of a 500-strong Gurkha Artillery regiment to be sent to Ukraine in the event of a peace deal. European defence ministers met last week in Paris to decide on a ‘force generation’ as part of a 20-nation ‘security and stabilisation’ operation in Ukraine.

There are currently just over 4,127 Nepali nationals in the British Army, most of them in the infantry. Media reports said the new artillery unit would be deployed in surveillance and reconnaissance roles attached to anti-aircraft missile systems.

Back in January, The Telegraph even floated the idea of establishing a Ukrainian equivalent of the Brigade of Gurkhas, a permanent, volunteer unit of Ukrainian nationals as part of the British Army as a symbol of the European military alliance.

Meanwhile, fighting has intensified even as US-brokered peace talks take place in Saudi Arabia. Russia and Ukraine have been hitting cities deep into each other’s territories with missiles and long-range drones. And Russia seems to be gaining ground to retake the Kursk region.

Casualties on both sides are high, and both sides are running out of manpower. Ukraine is feeling the shortage of recruits more acutely, while the Russian Army has been getting conscripts from the hinterland as well as mercenaries from Ethiopia, India and Nepal.

Tilak Budathoki from Rolpa paid a Nepali intermediary from Dang recruiting for the Russian Army Rs 1million to get him a military job. He was promised Rs300,000 a month salary for a ‘support job’ in the army, and Russian citizenship.

Budathoki had served three years in the Nepal Army, but he resigned after the Maoists threatened his family. With his military experience, he felt he could handle a military job.

He was flown to Moscow via New Delhi despite a Nepal government ban on mercenaries joining the Russian Army. After a few weeks training, he was sent off to the front, although the agent had said the Nepalis would be in kitchen duty or be back-up while Russian soldiers did the fighting.

But the reality was different. He was sent off to the Donestsk front where the fighting was fierce. The soldiers were constantly hungry and cold in the icy trenches. While the Nepalis foraged for food in nearby bunkers, they would be subject to relentless Ukrainian drone attacks.

Read also: Ukraine's lessons for sandwiched nations like Nepal, Bhaskar Koirala

Tilak Budhathoki Russian Army NT — Budathoki during his term as ward chair of Sunchahari Municpality-5 of Rolpa.

“This is nothing like I imagined, I have nothing left to lose,” Budathoki told us during a 1-hour conversation over Facebook Messenger in January. “I do not think I am getting out of this alive.”

Budathoki in the trenches on Facebook messenger in January one hour conversation was despondent and didn’t think he would make it back alive because of relentless Ukrainian drone attacks, black smoke billowing out of the snow-covered forests.

Budathoki had heard of Nepalis who had deserted and made it back to Nepal after paying the same recruiters who had brought them to Russia and after the Nepal Embassy issued them temporary travel documents. They charged $3,000. But several attempts to flee were unsuccessful.

Among those who managed to escape is Krishna Kumar Shahi from Dailekh who was wounded, and is now in TU Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu. He remembers: “There are corpses strewn all over like goats, and on the other side is Ukraine.”

Read also: 10 Nepalis from one town fighting in Ukraine, Sujata Dhungana

After reports of desertions, Russian military intelligence had increased surveillance and had a list of Nepalis in the Russian Army. Those caught were immediately sent back to the front, and deployed in the places where the fighting was fiercest. Some were tortured when they returned to their units.

“I am just waiting to die,” said Budhathoki, saying he missed his 12-year-old son and 6-year-old- daughter. “I came here so I could afford to send them to good schools back in Nepal. Everyone here wants to return to Nepal, they say they do not want any money just safety.”

For Budathoki, it was hard to take the death of Sajan Gurung, who had been recruited with him in Nepal and both had travelled together to Moscow. He was killed in action along with three other Nepalis in a Ukrainian drone attack on a trench barely 400m away.

On 25 February, Budathoki told his friends and family that he had been sent off again to the frontlines. A few days later, he was killed in action.

Tilak Budathoki’s death was announced on 11 March in Parliament in Kathmandu by Rolpa’s MP Iswari Gharti of the UML party. Budathoki had been elected ward chair of Sunchahari Municpality-5 of Rolpa. He lost the next election to a Maoist candidate, and was desperate for a job to pay off the loans he took for his campaign.

Since it was impossible to bring the body home, the families performed a ritual funeral in Nepal. MP Gharti told Parliament: “I request the prime minister to stop recruitment of Nepalis in the Russian Army.”

Many of the Nepalis in the Russian Army have never been paid, or not paid what they had been promised. Except for two of the dead, none have got compensation and their families in Nepal are deep in debt and cannot service loans they took to pay the recruiters.

Read also: Nepalis play Russian roulette in distant war, Shankar Dahal