Missing: Indians in Russian Ukraine War
Amritsari killed in Russian Ukraine War
List of Indians in Russian Army likely to be released tomorrow by MEA: Wife of dead Indian in Russia
Rashmi Talwar
Amritsar June 23rd 2024———————-
“My husband Tejpal Singh is the 5th Indian to have died in Russia Ukraine War. I fervently contacted his colleagues in the Russian Army recruited from varied parts of the world for more than three months to finally learn that my husband Tejpal Singh was killed in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine in March this year. His colleagues tell me horrifying tales as 26 of these foreign recruits, including Tejpal were sent on a dangerous mission and all were killed in the missile attack by Ukraine.” Talking to this author in Amritsar, a teary-eyed Parminder related- After Tejpal’s last message in March, saying he would remain cut off for maybe a month 20 days, they waited for his call. In March, it was three months since that message. Alarmed, I started to search for possible links to ascertain the whereabouts of my husband. Russians are very secretive about casualties of foreigners and other finer details. However, I came to know ultimately from a fellow Indian recruit about his death in mid-June this year.
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33 dead in the Ukraine-Russian War: Widow
“More than 33 Indians have died fighting for Russia in the Ukraine-Russian War!” said Parminder Kaur wife of Tejpal. And added –“The Indian Embassy in Russia told me that the list of Indians in Russia is ready and will be released Tomorrow. They assured me Tejpal’s name was also on the list”.
The Indian Embassy in Russia Mission coordinator Gina Uika in an email to Parminder wrote to the MEA –“The Mission has taken up the case of the reported death of Mr Tejpal Singh (Passport No U4418434) with the Russian authorities. The Russian MFA and MoD have been requested to provide official notification/ confirmation of the death so that transportation of the mortal remains can be initiated. Russian authorities have been requested to preserve the body. The Nodal officer for further coordination is Ms Gloria Dung Dung Second Secretary (Consular) Her Mobile nu is +7 965*******.”
The mail was received from the Moscow Indian Embassy, email: Cons.moscow@mea.gov.in emergency number +79652773414.
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Tejpal’s love for the army led him to the Russian warzone
A resident of Amritsar Tejpal (30) was born into a family that boasted of an army background. Both his paternal uncles were in the forces. His elder uncle Sukhpal Singh was in the army, and his younger uncle was in BSF posted in Baramullah Jammu & Kashmir.
Tejpal was so crazy about wearing the olive green of the army that he applied for the army three times, the BSF two times, the CRPF two times and once in the Punjab Police. Tejpal was dejected by these rejections for which there were no clear-cut reasons given to anyone. Finally, he took up a daily wager with the Punjab Police, which earned him a pittance as we had two children, a son Aarman (6) and a daughter Gulnaj (6) besides parents who owned a small kiryana shop. “He was dejected after facing these rejections, as years of trials in the Forces had aged him, to become ineligible for recruitment. Before this he had tried moving abroad So, when the Russian army opened its recruiting, he found a way by enrolling and filing an e-visa, which is easier to get. He locked his phone after the family disapproved of his joining Russian forces. He took Rs 70,000 from my savings and bought tickets to Moscow in a circuitous route via Thailand and Abu Dhabi.”
On March 3rd he left a brief message to his wife on WhatsApp from Russia, that he would not be in a position to speak to them for the next few days, maybe a month, as he was going to the frontline. Only 9 days after his last message which came after a month, he had been killed in a missile attack on March 12. An Amritsar village lad Lovepreet, similarly stuck in the Russian army who became Tejpal’s friend, one day slyly called me as he learned that I was calling every single day to know the fate of Tejpal, whose phone remained perpetually unreachable. “I felt as a fellow Indian, a Punjabi, and an Amritsari, it was my duty to tell you that Tejpal is no more. He was killed on March 12, but no one is allowed to leak information on casualties in Russia. But, I felt it was my responsibility, to tell you. Only nine days after he last messaged you, he was killed in a Missile attack in Ukraine.”
A heartbroken Parminder amidst tears said – “Tejpal died just 3 days short of his Russian Citizenship that he worked so hard to get! He wanted to give all of us a good life. We received Rs 2-lakhs as his first and only salary, which he said was Rs 50,000 short, of the contract he had signed with the Russian Army”.
Incidentally, the contract and form are all in Russian language for all foreign recruits making it difficult for them or families to decipher the exact meanings of the written word that had been signed by the recruit.
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Dream and Death!
For young Tejpal his dream to be in a uniform, rung his death knell. His end came fighting though not for his own country but in faraway lands some one else’s war. But his dream was fulfilled. When he reached Russia after a circuitous flight from Amritsar to Bangkok to Abu Dhabi to Moscow, he raced through three different countries fulfilling his dream of seeing lands beyond his own country. In just a few days he would have landed the Russian citizenship he so coveted in his desire to settle abroad and give his family of two kids and parents a good life at the cost of his own. “He was so happy after donning the uniform; his smile did not leave his face. Seeing him we too were extremely thrilled. However who knew our happiness and his was so short-lived?
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Tejpal’s plan
Tejpal (30) was smart. Having been to Cyprus twice on study visas, the first time, for six months in the year 2013-14 when he undertook a travel and tourism management course; and for the second time for 17 months when he met Parminder Kaur, his would-be wife and mother to his two children. Parminder herself was a dreamer of settling abroad after finishing a diploma in aviation and working as a ticket collector at an Indian airport. She went to Cyprus on a work visa.
Tejpal having a sociable nature made friends easily and carried on being in touch with them even after returning to India. They knew his dreams and often sent him information on work opportunities, visa formalities and housing plans for immigrants at low rates. Last year he expressed a desire to settle abroad as time was running out and his age was catching up leaving him little time for recruitment in any Forces. At that time Russian army was looking to enlist young, able-bodied men to fight their war in Ukraine. It came as a calling for him.
Initially, he kept the information secret from his wife and partner, as well as his parents” his wife came to know from his friend.
“He searched and got to know via the Internet that Russia was wholeheartedly opening opportunities for foreign nationals to join its army to keep the war active in Ukraine. He saw this as a rare opportunity to realise his dreams and fulfil family responsibilities.” One of his friends told him that he could apply for permanent citizenship as well, and would get it in three months flat. “At that time I knew he was applying abroad and it was nothing out of the ordinary as I wanted to settle abroad too. More Punjabis are abroad than any other nationality in the world. But when he told us he was joining the Russian army, it came as a shock. Feeling the opposition and abhorrence for his decision he changed his password number on his mobile so that no one could read his messaging details. He got an e-visa.”
Electronic, is easiest as it requires all documentation to be uploaded online — including embassy fees, IT Returns, bank statements, stay arrangements and travel, travel agents in Punjab are the finest and fastest in these things says a travel agent.
For Russian recruitment, travel agents say the conditions were much eased and many were overlooked as far as documentation was concerned. His idea was to evade detection by the Indian government as a ban on recruiting Indians in the war zone was soon to be imposed. So it was Bangkok in December last year and after about three weeks he flew to Moscow via Abu Dhabi, spending his wife’s savings of Rs 72000/.
He reached Moscow at midnight on January 20 this year and soon cleared the Physical and Medical Test of the Army. He was so thrilled and was now a cadet. He proudly posted his photos to me in uniform. But his and our happiness was so short-lived. He sent his first salary and was gone on March 12, merely eight weeks after his setting afoot in the Russian War, fighting for a country he knew nothing of, fighting a war he knew nothing of. Killed in action, dead from a shot of a deadly missile!” Parminder cried.
The Russian language was his main issue it was rigorously taught along with training of nearly 15 hours a day. His endearing quality was his friendly nature and his friends were all surrounding him when we talked. he introduced them from Nepal to Africa to Sri Lanka and I too felt a big part of the buddy culture. I also came to know 12 Indians in Russian Ukraine War, 5 of them are dead, she added.
In due course, the cadets were taken to Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine, an area usurped by Russia in the early stages of the war in February 2022.
A new commander commanded Tejpal and other foreign recruits thereon who first shut down all their phonic communication. It was only on March 3 that she spoke last to him after weeks of being incommunicado and Tejpal told me that from then on he would not be able to talk to them for a long time. His long time proved prophetic as he lay sleeping from a missile that snuffed out life from him, as of many others scattered on the bloodied battleground.
Tejpal was killed in action on March 12, but Parminder wouldn’t know until June when she called the number of a friend in his unit that Tejpal had once given her. “My husband was a part of the Russian army, but I don’t even know if that army is going to pay me any compensation. Even his friends are sending distress calls to return home. But my husband or his ashes will never return home, they are long mixed in the dust and earth of that battlefield that was never his own and for a war that he fought for nothing.”
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Demand and Appeal to Russians
Young Parminder widowed with two little children intends to go to Russia to talk to the Russian authorities. “Visa will not be an issue as I have a copy of Tejpal’s contract with the Russian army. I intend to demand compensation from the Russian army from the date they formally informed me of the death in action of my husband Tejpal and not from the date he died. I shall demand the outstanding dues of his service and the pensions thereof, as it was a criminal offence to keep his death a secret from his family. I will also appeal for a job in Russia. Parminder quickly took a U-turn about settling in Russia as the rest of the family was in close hearing space about her plans for the future. I don’t know what I will do here and how I will look after two little kids all alone without any monetary support,” she cried.
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Photo: Amritsar Family of Tejpal Singh killed in action in Russia Ukraine War.
Rashmi Talwar Saanjh-Togetherness 