15,000 Nepalese soldiers aid Russia in war against Ukraine – CNN
Photo: CNN
Russia recruited 15,000 Nepalese to its army. This happened after, in 2023, the Russian government announced favorable terms of service for foreign fighters who will join the Russian military.
CNN reported this with reference to "numerous sources."
The publication, in particular, told the story of Ramchandra Khadka, a 37-year-old guy who recently returned to Nepal after being wounded on the front lines in Ukraine. He told CNN that he witnessed horrific scenes and regrets his decision to join the Kremlin's army as a foreign mercenary.
"I didn't join the Russian army for pleasure. I didn't have any opportunity to get a job in Nepal. But, looking back, it was the wrong decision. We didn't imagine that we would be sent to the front line so quickly and how terrible the situation would be," Khadka said.
He came to Moscow last September. After two weeks of training, he was sent to the front line in Bakhmut. He was there twice and for a month in total until he received a bullet in the thigh. After he was rescued and taken a few hundred meters from the front line, he was also hit by fragments of a cluster bomb.
Khadka is one of many.
The Nepalese government claims that approximately 200 of its citizens are fighting on the side of the Russian army and that at least 13 Nepalis have been killed in the war zone. But Nepal's lawmakers and human rights activists say these official estimates vastly understate the real numbers.
A well-known opposition Nepalese lawmaker and former foreign minister, Bimala Rai Paudyal, told the upper house of the district parliament that 14,000 to 15,000 Nepalese are fighting on the front lines in the Russian army. In his statement, he cited testimony from men who had returned from the war zone and called on the Russian authorities to provide accurate figures.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nepal, four of their fighters are currently in Ukraine as prisoners of war. The Russian Foreign Ministry did not respond to CNN's questions about the number of Nepalis recruited by the Russian army and how many of them have died so far.
For reference:
It should be noted that Russia is recruiting mercenaries in Syria for the war against Ukraine. Russian passports are issued to them under an accelerated procedure.
As reported, as of today, the losses of the Russian side since the beginning of the full-scale invasion amount to more than 395 thousand soldiers.
According to the estimates of the British Ministry of Defense, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the Russians have lost more than 300,000 soldiers. Still, even the officials of the Russian Federation do not know the exact number of dead.
Let's add that Moskva plans to continue replenishing the occupiers' ranks. Recently, it was predicted in Britain that Putin intends to call up another 170,000 people for the war against Ukraine.
Putin said that by the end of the year, he would recruit half a million Russians for the war against Ukraine: 617 thousand are currently fighting.
"We went through a partial mobilization – we drafted 300,000 people. The guys are fighting wonderfully. After that, we started a broad campaign to attract people to enter into contracts. By the end of the year, we planned to recruit 412,000 people. As of last night, 486,000 people were recruited, and the flow of our men, who are ready to defend the homeland with weapons in hand, does not stop," Putin said.
Also, when asked whether there would be a second wave of mobilization in the Russian Federation, the dictator said there was "no need for it."
