140 home, 55 still unaccounted: India presses Moscow over nationals in the Russian army

Behind every diplomatic phrase in this story is a family checking a phone. India told a consultative committee on India-Russia relations on October 3 that around 140 Indian nationals recruited into the Russian army have been discharged. The harder number came next: New Delhi is still seeking the whereabouts of 55 others believed to be serving. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar chaired the meeting, which also heard that action is being taken against the agents who channelled men into a foreign war.

The scale has grown with each official update. A month earlier, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri put the total recruited at 227, with 139 discharged and 51 dead. Those figures do not sit comfortably beside one another, and families notice the gaps. A discharged man can come home. A confirmed death, however painful, can at least be mourned. An unaccounted name offers neither relief nor closure. It leaves parents, spouses and children suspended between hope and dread.

How did Indians end up in Russian uniform? Officials and earlier reporting describe a familiar trap: offers of civilian work, often as cooks or helpers, travel on tourist or student visas, contracts in a language the recruit could not read, and then deployment with military units in the war against Ukraine. Many of those affected come from Punjab, Haryana and other northern states. Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised the issue with President Vladimir Putin in July 2024. More than two years later, the file is still open.

New Delhi says it has pressed Moscow at the highest levels and remains in touch with Russian authorities and with families. That engagement must now produce a verifiable list: who is alive, who is in hospital, who has died, and whose remains can be identified. DNA samples have previously been sought from families to identify the dead. Each delay compounds the original failure, which began when recruiters were able to operate long enough to move scores of young men from job queues to battlefields.

India cannot control Russia's war. It can control how honestly it accounts for its own citizens caught inside it. Publishing a clear, regularly updated count, naming a single accountable desk for families, and showing what action has been taken against recruitment networks would not bring the missing home by itself. It would, at least, replace rumour with record. Fifty-five families deserve that record without having to beg for it.