'Our Worst Fears Came True': Nepal Families on Losing Sons to Russia-Ukraine War

"It is hard to earn a decent living in Nepal due to lack of jobs," the grieving families tell The Quint.

"We got the news of my brother's death on a Friday, and we performed the last rites two days later, on a Sunday. We weren't sure if his body would be repatriated. We are waiting for that day," Mangal Shah tells The Quint.

Mangal's 34-year-old brother Bharat Shah, who hails from Kailali district in west Nepal, joined the Russian Army in August 2023. On 26 November, he was killed in the ongoing war.

"One of my brother's colleagues informed us that he had been shot dead in the border area of Russia," Mangal recounts. Bharat is survived by a four-year-old son and a three-month-old daughter.

"My brother worked in Nepal Police for seven years. He resigned three years ago and went to Dubai to work as a security guard. Even though the money in Dubai was good, the job at the Russian Army paid better. He resigned from the job, came back to Nepal, got a work permit issued in Kathmandu, and boarded a flight out of here in August."

Mangal laments that "it's hard to earn a decent living in Nepal due to lack of jobs," forcing jobseekers like Bharat to look outside.

According to the International Labour Organisation, the unemployment rate for youth aged between 15 and 29 years in Nepal is 19.2 percent, compared to 2.7 percent for the entire population.

Like Bharat, there are roughly 200 other Nepalese youth who have joined the Russian military since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022. That was the estimate provided by Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal on 4 December 2023, as reported by The Kathmandu Post.

This is despite the fact that the country does not permit Nepalese nationals to serve in foreign armies besides in India and the United Kingdom (UK), where these nationals have fought for generations in the British and Indian armies.

'Not Paid Adequately in Nepal Army'

"We had been living in agony since the second week of December, but we still held on to some hope," Badri Aryal, a resident of Nepal's Syangja district, tells The Quint.

Badri's 23-year-old nephew, Hari Aryal, went to Moscow on 20 October 2023. Five days later, he captured a selfie donning a Russian Army uniform and shared it on social media. He was in touch with his family until his last post on 4 December – following which all communication ceased.

However, on 1 January, "Our worst fears came true when a government official informed us that my nephew who had enlisted in the Russian Army had lost his life," Badri recalls to The Quint.

Hari was the youngest sibling of two brothers and a sister. At the age of 18, he had joined the Nepalese Army, but he was dissatisfied. While he made 30,000 Nepalese rupees at home, he was paid 75,000 Nepalese rupees while working in Russia.

"Hari felt he was not being paid properly (in the Nepalese Army), and the salary was insufficient for his aspirations. He frequently spoke about seeking alternative opportunities."

Badri Aryal, Hari Aryal's uncle

Badri recalls that Hari's inclination to join the Russian Army coincided with the period when other Nepalese men, who had joined the country's frontlines, were sharing videos on social media platforms. "Hari got influenced by these videos and felt tempted to join the Russian army. We told him not to go but he did not listen to us," the uncle says.

'My Parents Have Lost Their Only Son'

Sarala Thapa still remembers the dreary day in November last year when three people showed up at her parents' doorstep in Kapilavastu district to tell them that her brother Rupak Karki, who was just 24, had been killed in action on the Ukraine front.

"I had gone to my parents' house to visit them for Tihar (Diwali) when three government officials showed up at the doorstep and informed us of our brother's passing," she says.

On 4 December, Nepal's Foreign Ministry officially published the names of the Nepalese citizens who had been killed in the Russian frontline. Rupak's name was second on the list.

"Rupak had gone to Russia in 2022 on a student visa. He last telephoned us in January 2023 to say that we might not hear from him during his six-month training period and that he would call us once training was over," Thapa tells The Quint.

"We were very sure that he would call us once his training was over but that did not happen. My parents have lost their only son. They are in deep grief."

Before leaving for Russia, Rupak had been learning Korean to try to find work in South Korea. But he, along with a neighbour, decided to go to Russia instead as it was 'easier to acquire a student visa and find a job.'

According to local reports, Rupak entered into a Special Military Operations agreement with the Russian Ministry of Defense to serve in the Russian Army. The Russian website Book of Memories of Ivanovo states that Rupak died on 30 June 2023 on the Ukraine front while participating in the ‘special military operation’.

Unemployment Causing Youths to Take Up High-Risk Jobs

The Nepalese government on 4 January, Thursday suspended the issuance of work permits to its citizens to travel to Russia and Ukraine following the death of at least 10 Nepalese citizens who joined the Russian Army.

Nepal’s Department of Foreign Employment (DoFE), in a notice, said that the matter was of serious concern as several Nepalese youths were being illegally recruited into the Russian Army, according to local news reports.

Nepal had also requested Moscow not to recruit its citizens into the army – and immediately send back any Nepalese soldier commissioned there back to the Himalayan nation.

However, the government failed to acknowledge the problem of unemployment. In a now-viral Facebook post, Diamond C Myagdeli, a Nepalese national, recently shared that he is among those who once fought the Nepalese civil war on behalf of the Maoists, but has now been left to fend for himself and look for jobs in different parts of the world.

Dr Ganesh Gurung, who is an expert on labour migration, tells The Quint that though the number of people below the poverty line has drastically declined in Nepal, the foreign employment rate has spiked.

“It is a paradox really. While remittance (which is a major source of income for Nepal) sent by those working abroad has lifted people out of poverty, job creation rate has been too slow. Nepal lacks avenues and policies to absorb its workforce, fueling outmigration. Youths risking their lives to fight on the frontlines for a different country is a result of an unemployment at home," he adds.

According to estimates, in the fiscal year 2022-23, a record 7,50,000 youths left the country for foreign employment.

Meanwhile, Sanjay Sharma, who is the author of the research paper State of Migration in Nepal, said that this situation is not unprecedented.

"There is even a term for Nepalese soldiers who have been going to foreign lands to earn money and even fighting wars on behalf of others and they are called as lahures. These lahures did go and fight in Afghanistan or Iraq despite knowing that the risks involved were very high,” he tells The Quint.

Experts on the matter also point out to India's Agnipath Scheme that could have contributed to the migration to other armies.

Binjoj Basnyat, a strategic analyst and the former Major General of the Nepali Army, highlights to The Quint on how the deadlock between Nepal and India over the Agnipath scheme may also be influencing these youths.

"Since the last three years, the Indian Army has not recruited any Nepalese soldiers into the Indian Army. The first two years were due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And then, in August 2022, the Nepal government blocked recruitment of Nepalese Gorkhas for the Indian Army’s 43-battalion-strong Gorkha Regiment under the Agnipath scheme, claiming that it violated the 1947 Tripartite Agreement signed between the two countries and the UK," he tells The Quint.

Nepalese constitute about 60 percent of each battalion of the Gorkhas, while Indians make up the rest.

Basnyat explains that working for the Indian Army is considered to be a matter of huge prestige for the Nepalese. "Many youths train to get into the Indian Army. But with recruitment by the Indian Army put on a hold, these youths have no choice but to go and fight for the Russian frontline."