Keralites ‘trapped’ in Russia after ‘illegal recruitments’, CM Pinarayi writes to Jaishankar for help

The CM said four others named Santhosh, Shanmukhan, Siby Susamma Babu and Renin Thomas are still trapped in a military camp at Ukraine’s Luhansk “in dangerous situations”.

“They have gone to Russia through illegal recruitments and on reaching Russia, they were deployed in military camps. It has to be found out how many people are languishing in Russia after they got cheated in job fraud,” the letter said, also seeking the Union Minister’s intervention for speedy repartition of Sandeep’s body.

In Delhi, MEA spokesperson Randhir Randhir Jaiswal told reporters at a weekly briefing that as many as 15 Indian nationals have been released from the Russian Army so far and the embassy in Moscow continues to work with the authorities there to facilitate the release of the others.

Jaiswal’s comments came weeks after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar told Parliament that Russian President Vladimir Putin had “personally” assured PM Narendra Modi, in Moscow last month, of the release of 69 Indians with the Russian Army. Giving details, Jaishankar had told the House that over the past nine months, 91 Indians had been recruited into Russian Army and eight had been killed so far.  “14 out of 91 Indians have been discharged or… have come back with our assistance,” he had said.