Captured Tajik tells of life on Ukraine frontlines alongside Russian forces

Names marked with an asterisk person been changed to support identities.

In 2024, Mohammed* flew into St Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city, connected his archetypal travel abroad.

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With its cleanable grid, imposing imperial palaces and “white nights”, erstwhile the proximity to the Arctic Circle makes acheronian vanish successful precocious summer, St Petersburg was a acold outcry from home.

Mohammed arrived from Dushanbe, the sun-parched and overpopulated superior of Tajikistan, the poorest federation of ex-Soviet Central Asia.

He saw the travel arsenic a mode of boosting his income and sending remittances home, similar millions of Central Asian economical migrants who question to Russia each twelvemonth oregon unrecorded determination full-time.

He entered Russia visa-free, paid 6,000 rubles ($74) a period for a renewable enactment permit, and shared a shabby rented flat with six others portion moving astatine a nutrient stall.

But months aft arriving, the beingness helium had cautiously carved retired was shattered.

He told Al Jazeera that, having forgotten to wage the interest for the enactment permit, helium was rounded up by police, beaten and denied food. In detention, Russian subject officers forced him to motion up to the army, helium said.

He said helium had nary prime but to serve.

He travelled to Ukraine and fought alongside Russian troops and overseas fighters connected Moscow’s side.

Earlier this year, however, Ukrainian troops captured him. He is present a captive of warfare (PoW).

Ukraine’s subject gave Al Jazeera uncommon entree to Mohammed, 1 of dozens of Central Asian prisoners of war. Al Jazeera did not witnesser Mohammed speaking nether duress, nevertheless an serviceman was contiguous astatine the interrogation successful a prison, successful a municipality adjacent to the beforehand line.

Al Jazeera is concealing Mohammed’s individuality for information reasons.

According to planetary laws, prisoners of warfare indispensable beryllium treated humanely.

But respective erstwhile PoWs interviewed successful Ukraine and swapped aboriginal person been sentenced to jailhouse for “spreading fake news”. Both Kyiv and Moscow person besides traded accusations of mistreatment, torture and execution of PoWs. Some of the claims person been confirmed by gruesome videos posted online oregon connected Telegram channels.

Mohammed lamented Russia during the interview. In summation to alleging constabulary brutality, helium claimed to person observed anti-Muslim favoritism astatine subject grooming centres.

Russia and Ukraine person swapped thousands of prisoners of warfare since the commencement of the struggle successful aboriginal 2022. There is nary authoritative information connected the fig of PoWs each broadside holds. Mohammed said helium hopes helium is not transferred backmost to Russia and is allowed to combat connected Ukraine’s broadside instead.

It is simply a assertion that feels acquainted successful the discourse of the Russia-Ukraine war. In July, Russian lawmaker Viktor Vodolatsky said that a fig of Ukrainian PoWs refused to instrumentality and wanted to combat for Moscow. An activistic said astatine the clip that it was “very unlikely, oregon astir impossible, that prisoners would hold to this benignant of happening voluntarily”.

Freed Ukrainian captive of warfare (PoW) Andrii Shemeyko, 39, looks retired from a model astatine his girl Nastya, 5, aft a swap, successful an undisclosed determination successful Ukraine, October 2, 2025 [Anatolii Stepanov/Reuters]

Mohammed said that backmost successful Russia, helium realised helium had signed a one-year subject work declaration with a signing bonus of 1.6 cardinal rubles ($19,644) and a monthly wage of 210,000 rubles ($2,580) – lone aft helium was allegedly forced to bash so.

The officers promised helium would service arsenic a “guard” acold from the beforehand enactment and would person a Russian passport successful six months.

“They fooled me,” helium said.

He past spent weeks grooming successful occidental Russia. The grooming was perfunctory, helium said. His AK-47 battle firearm was aged and kept jamming.

“My limb didn’t work, I swear. Seriously,” helium said.

‘Kremlin’s argumentation of recruiting manpower’

Russia has agelong been accused of forcibly conscripting Central Asian migrants, allegedly with a dense hand.

Like Mohammed, others who person survived to archer their stories accidental they were promised hefty salaries, “safe” jobs acold from the beforehand line, and Russian citizenship.

“Behind each that is the Kremlin’s argumentation of recruiting manpower by immoderate means indispensable and avoiding the forced mobilisation of Russians,” Alisher Ilkhamov, the caput of Central Asia Due Diligence, a London-based deliberation tank, told Al Jazeera.

In the grooming centres, wherever dozens of recruits slept successful unheated barracks, determination were different Muslims from extracurricular Russia – including nationals of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan.

Some volunteered, but astir were forced to enlist, Mohammed said.

He claimed that the Muslims were not allowed to commune and were taxable to regular radical and spiritual slurs from drill officers, who allegedly forced them to shave disconnected their beards and cleanable toilets successful and retired of the barracks.

The fig of Russians was debased and constricted to convicts who volunteered to service successful speech for statesmanlike pardons, helium said.

Moscow denies racially oregon religiously profiling imaginable recruits, but has emphasised the “duty” of economical migrants who person received oregon tendency Russian citizenship to service their caller home.

In May 2023, Russia’s apical authoritative Aleksander Bastrykin said that “while Russians are connected the beforehand lines, the migrants are attacking our rear… If they are Russian nationals, person citizenship, please, spell to the beforehand line. If you don’t fulfil your duty, spell backmost to your motherland.”

A twelvemonth later, helium said forced recruitment is “a bully diagnostic that led to the concern erstwhile migrants started dilatory leaving Russia”.

After the training, Mohammed was taken to an eastbound Ukraine portion that was location to dense fighting. He was handed an battle rifle, magazines and manus grenades.

He was partnered with different overseas fighter, who told him helium had volunteered successful speech for a Russian passport.

The brace appeared to person go portion of Moscow’s caller stratagem of dispatching handfuls of servicemen to infiltrate Ukrainian positions and amass manpower and ammunition earlier clashing with Ukrainian forces.

“This is simply a maneuver of extra-small tempest groups; it has been utilized since spring, successful definite locations since precocious past year,” Nikolay Mitrokhin of Germany’s Bremen University, who has authored copious analytical reports connected the Russian-Ukrainian war, told Al Jazeera.

“It decreases losses, particularly if there’s foliage” that hides the troops “and sharply increases the means to destruct them, astir tenfold”, helium said.

Mohammed and different servicemen had their phones, documents and debit cards taken distant by their officers.

They received inexpensive smartphones with conscionable 1 app – Alpine Quest, a topographic programme that lets users determination astir utilizing coded coordinates without web entree and GPS.

They did not cognize the names of the villages and farms they were tasked to determination to by their commanding officer, who radioed them from a region and whose sanction oregon whereabouts they ne'er recovered out.

Every day, they walked for hours successful tiny groups. One of the servicemen carried a backpack with a portable jamming strategy that immobilised Ukrainian drones.

He said helium saw respective killed Russian soldiers: “Some had nary heads, immoderate nary arms.”

They trudged connected contempt hunger and thirst – drone-delivered rations consisted of a tiny vessel of h2o and 2 oregon 3 cocoa bars a day.

When Mohammed saw a gravely wounded, bleeding Russian soldier, his commanding serviceman warned him by vigor against helping him.

To Mohammed, that was the infinitesimal of a harrowing revelation – his beingness meant nothing, and helium mightiness besides beryllium near to die.

Amid a spell of aggravated fighting, Mohammed and his spouse were ordered to fell successful an abandoned, fire-damaged Ukrainian village.

With nary drone-delivered nutrient for days, they rummaged done kitchens and basements lone to find immoderate pasta, which they chewed raw.

But Ukrainian drones tracked them down.

‘Mohammed expressed a privation to service for Ukraine’

Mohammed claimed that during his clip successful the army, helium did not occurrence his weapon oregon propulsion a azygous grenade. Ukrainians instrumentality specified claims with a atom of salt.

“In the years of my work since Russia’s full-scale penetration of Ukraine, nary Russian captive of warfare has ever admitted he’d killed Ukrainian servicemen, civilians. Not a azygous one,” the Ukrainian serviceman who oversaw Mohammed told Al Jazeera.

Mohammed “was a Russian storm-trooper. He was captured portion storming Ukrainian positions successful Donetsk,” the serviceman said.

Mohammed said helium was fearful of Ukrainian detention, having heard rumours that Russian captives had been tortured and mutilated.

He has been treated amended than helium had expected, helium said.

“I swear, they springiness maine immoderate I privation – cigarettes immoderate time, food, drinks. They say, ‘Take it, small brother,’” helium said.

He besides called his begetter for the archetypal time: “My dada cried a little, said, ‘What matters is that you’re alive.’”

People locomotion adjacent to a damaged gathering and vehicles, successful a residential neighbourhood deed during a Russian drone and rocket attack, connected the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, September 28, 2025 [Anatolii Stepanov/Reuters]

He fears the anticipation of being swapped, arsenic Russia, according to quality rights groups and ex-soldiers, has disregarded planetary rules by returning prisoners of warfare to the beforehand line.

“They volition get maine backmost to the war, 100 percent, until I dice oregon suffer an limb oregon a leg,” helium said.

He cannot instrumentality to Tajikistan, either, arsenic helium could look 12 years successful jailhouse for joining different nation’s army.

Hochu Jit (I Want to Live), a Ukrainian authorities radical that monitors and helps PoWs, said successful April it had verified the names of 931 Tajik nationals aged 18 to 70 warring for Russia. It said 196 of them had died, arsenic their beingness expectancy connected the beforehand lines was 140 days, and specified that the existent fig could beryllium “much higher”.

Mohammed believes his lone mode to past is to enlist successful the Ukrainian service to get Ukrainian citizenship and get his household retired of Tajikistan.

“When the warfare is implicit – if the warfare is implicit – I volition archer my dada successful Tajikistan: Come on, merchantability the house, travel to Ukraine, bargain a location here,” helium said.

The serviceman overseeing Mohammed said his enlistment plea is being considered.

Dozens of Russian PoWs person volunteered to combat for Ukraine since 2022, and many joined 2 subject units that dwell of Russian nationals.

“Seeing Ukrainian servicemen’s mean cognition towards him, and comparing it with the Russians’ attitude, Mohammed expressed a privation to service for the Ukrainian forces, truthful that helium doesn’t instrumentality to Russia to acquisition radical and taste discrimination,” the serviceman said.