Overview
- AP interviewed three men who escaped and families of three missing who describe being coerced into Russian-language military contracts, trained, sent to front-line tasks, and threatened with prison, beatings, and death.
- Some recruits who expected non-combat technical roles say they were deceived, tortured in detention, and forced to recover bodies in Ukraine, including at Avdiivka.
- Documents gathered by AP — visas, Russian military contracts, army dog tags, medical and police reports, and photos — corroborate the accounts.
- Bangladeshi police are investigating suspected trafficking networks; a Bangladeshi with Russian citizenship based in Moscow has been charged, and a linked local agency, SP Global, closed in 2025.
- The scope remains uncertain, with returnees estimating possibly hundreds involved and a police investigator citing about 40 deaths, while Russian and Bangladeshi authorities did not respond to AP’s questions.