Bangladeshi men are being flown out of Dhaka, routed through Saudi Arabia and the UAE, before being taken to Moscow and forced onto the frontlines of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The route -- using a combination of religious and tourist visas through Middle Eastern transit hubs -- is part of what rights groups describe as a trafficking pipeline feeding civilians into the Russian armed forces.
The findings were disclosed yesterday in a joint report by Bangkok-based Fortify Rights and Ukraine-based Truth Hounds, titled “I Was Tricked into the War”, at a press conference at Drik Gallery in the capital’s Panthapath.
With early access to the findings, this newspaper published an article the day before yesterday titled “Over 100 Bangladeshis Sent to the Front, 34 Dead: report”.
MUCH WIDER PATTERN
The report shows that Bangladesh is part of a much wider South Asian recruitment pattern.
According to data published by the Ukrainian Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, as of February 2026, at least 751 Sri Lankans, 851 Nepalis, 170 Indians, and 104 Bangladeshis had been recruited into the Russian army.
The data also shows that at least 275 Sri Lankans, 116 Nepalis, 23 Indians, and 34 Bangladeshis have so far been killed in the fighting between Russia and Ukraine.
Researchers said the figures indicate that South Asia has become a key recruitment ground for Russia’s military efforts, with brokers exploiting economic hardship and established labour migration routes across the region.
FROM DHAKA TO MOSCOW
According to the report, Bangladeshi victims typically leave Dhaka for Saudi Arabia on religious visas or travel to Dubai on tourist visas. From there, brokers help them secure Russian visas before flying them to cities such as Saint Petersburg or Moscow.
John Quinley, director of Fortify Rights, said testimonies from both brokers and recruits indicate cooperation with Russian authorities in facilitating the process.
Once in Russia, most men are allegedly forced to sign contracts written in Russian, a language they cannot read, before being transported to military facilities and later fed to the frontlines.
Between May 2025 and February 2026, Fortify Rights and Truth Hounds conducted 24 interviews in Bangladesh and Ukraine, including with survivors who returned home, relatives of men killed in combat, anti-trafficking police, and service providers to get data.
PROMISED JOBS, DELIVERED TO WAR
Researchers say brokers target men from low-income backgrounds, offering promises of work as cleaners, factory workers, or electricians.
Arman Mondol, 23, from Rajbari, Dhaka, told the researcher he was promised around US$1,000 per month and assured he would travel to a European country, not Russia.
The report quoted him as saying that he first travelled to Saudi Arabia, obtained a Russian visa there, and then flew to Saint Petersburg.
Within days, he found himself undergoing military training.
“I attended basic training for 10 days. I was trained to use rocket launchers and shoot a machine gun. It was an AK-47… I went to Ukraine to fight for 15 days. It was intense fighting,” he said.
Another survivor, Maksudur Rahman, 31, said he travelled from Dhaka to Dubai and then to Moscow after losing his job in Malaysia. At Moscow airport, brokers allegedly demanded additional money.
“Groups of Bangladeshis were taken one by one into airport toilets, where cash was collected… I paid about US$1,000 under pressure,” he said.
Believing he was signing a cleaning-services contract, he signed a document in the Russian language, later to discover it was a military contract.
COERCION AND ABUSE
The report says many men corroborated accounts of being routed through third countries, handed contracts they could not read, and transferred to military training facilities shortly after arriving in Russia.
Several survivors described being sent into combat with little or no training.
Others reported beatings by commanders, denial of pay, confiscation of passports, and threats when attempting to leave.
One Bangladeshi survivor described the battlefield as a “meat grinder” where escape was nearly impossible due to checkpoints and constant drone strikes.
Photographs included in the report show a Russian military-issued identification tag belonging to Mohammad Masud, who later fled and returned to Bangladesh after enduring beatings and other abuses in the Russian army.
FAMILIES PAYING THE PRICE
Back home, families often sell land or take high-interest loans to pay recruitment fees -- often thousands of US dollars -- to brokers.
The report notes that families were left in crushing debt after paying such fees, only to later receive news of a son or husband killed on the frontlines.
Habibullah, a Bangladeshi man who died on the frontlines, last spoke to his family on May 1, 2025. During that call, he pleaded, “Please save me if you can. I haven’t eaten for three-four days,” according to the report.
Bangladesh’s Anti-Human Trafficking Unit has acknowledged that economic desperation and lack of awareness are key drivers behind the rise of trafficking syndicates that fed civilians to sustain Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Mohammad Badrul Alam Molla, special superintendent of police at the Criminal Investigation Department, was quoted in the report as saying in January 2026 that trafficking networks exploit men from rural or disadvantaged backgrounds by offering unrealistic promises of high salaries and secure jobs abroad.
CALL FOR ACTION
Amy Smith, executive director of Fortify Rights, said recruitment through deception, cross-border transport, and exploitation on the battlefield meets the definition of human trafficking under international law.
“If you recruit someone through deception, you transport them across borders, and you force them into exploitation even on the battlefield. That is human trafficking,” she said.
The report urges the Bangladeshi government to dismantle local broker networks, monitor migration routes through Middle Eastern transit hubs, and press Russia to withdraw trafficked Bangladeshi nationals from the frontlines.
It also calls for systematic documentation of recruitment methods and intermediary networks, as well as accountability measures at national and international levels.
As the war grinds on, the report warns that Bangladeshi men continue to risk becoming “expendable manpower” in a conflict thousands of miles from their homes.
During the briefing yesterday, Maria Tomak, researcher and advocacy expert at Truth Hounds, characterised the findings as evidence of “predatory recruitment done by Russia [that] is spread all around the globe.”
She noted the far-reaching impact of the conflict, stating that not only are Ukrainian people affected by the war, but it appears that Bangladeshi people are as well.
