This is out of economic desperation by the lowest class laborers vs. some political doctrine or admiration by the educated.
The laborers have been lured into Russian military as well.
The economic drivers and the plight of the poor is not unique to India. But what is unique to India is the stupid lethargy of the Govt and always operates after the horse has left the barn.
It took the the first deaths in both countries for th Govt to wake up To this
India seeks return of citizens lured to Russian front line
JOHN REED AND JYOTSNA SINGH NEW DELHI POLINA IVANOVA — BERLIN
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India is working to bring back about 20 of its citizens who ended up on the Russian side of the front line in Ukraine after their families said they were lured there under false pretences.
The men’s plight has made national headlines in India, discomfiting a government that has good relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin but says it has “strongly taken up” the issue of the men unwittingly conscripted into Moscow’s army.
“We have got some of them out and are working on getting the rest out now,” the ministry of external affairs told the Financial Times. In a statement last week, the ministry said it was “actively pursuing” all the relevant cases involving Indian nationals for an early discharge from the Russian army.
In interviews, relatives of some of the men said they had been lured to Russia by promises of work with the army away from the war’s front line and of permanent residence in Russia on the borders of the EU, which is a coveted destination for job-seeking Indians.
In September, a social media influencer started posting about jobs in Russia on his Hindi-language YouTube channel Baba’s Vlogs. In one video, he posted about demand for food delivery boys in Russia; in another, he spoke about jobs for “helpers” for the Russian army. Strolling on the streets of St Petersburg, the YouTuber spoke of the prospects of a Rs100,000 ($1,206) a month job with the Russian army, and free food and accommodation after three months of training.
Mohammed Imran, from Hyderabad in south India, said his 30-year-old brother Mohammed Asfan “got trapped” after watching a Baba’s Vlogs video that claimed he would be able to work for the Russian army in Moscow and become eligible for permanent Russian residency in less than a year.
The missing man’s brother said he planned to travel to Russia this week to search for him. “The boy became trapped,” said Imran. He said his brother reached Moscow in November and was given an agreement to sign in Russian, then taken to the front line in Ukraine in December, after which he lost track of him.
Imran said that in January, one of his brother’s colleagues told him that Asfan had been injured by bullets in the leg.
Separately, a group of young men from India’s northern Punjab and Haryana states who went to Russia around the new year sent a video to relatives on Sunday appealing to authorities for urgent help. In the video, one of the men claimed they were misled by a man who offered to show them around and that they ended up in Belarus, where they were “handed to the Russian army” for entering the country without a visa.