Bangladeshis Tricked Into Russia’s War, Investigation Reveals

An in-depth Associated Press investigation has exposed a widespread and systematic human trafficking operation in which Bangladeshi men are being deceived by labor recruiters with promises of lucrative civilian jobs in Russia, only to be forcibly conscripted into the Russian military and sent to the front lines of the war in Ukraine.

The victims, like Maksudur Rahman who was recruited as a janitor, reported being abruptly thrust into combat, with one Russian commander coldly informing Rahman through a translation app, “Your agent sent you here. We bought you,” after which he and others were threatened with decade-long prison sentences and subjected to beatings.

Another recruit, Mohan Miajee, was promised work as an electrician and assured his skills would place him in a non-combat drone unit, but instead he was taken to a military camp in the captured city of Avdiivka, where he was tortured in a basement, beaten with shovels, and forced to carry supplies and collect corpses.

These personal accounts are substantiated by a trove of documents—including Russian business visas, military contracts signed by a Major Vladimir Yaltsev, army dog tags, and medical reports—which families in villages like Lakshmipur and Munshiganj cling to as proof after losing all contact with their loved ones, who sent final messages saying they were being taken to the front before communications ceased.

The scale of the deception is still unclear, but the men reported seeing hundreds of fellow Bangladeshis alongside Russian forces, with a Bangladeshi police investigator estimating around 40 may have been killed, while the trafficking network appears to involve multiple layers of Bangladeshi intermediaries with connections to Russian authorities, all profiting from the exploitation of desperate migrant workers who sold land to pay agent fees for what they believed was a path to financial stability, not a death sentence in a foreign war.