Seven young men from Punjab and Haryana have made a desperate request for help from the authorities, claiming that they were tricked into joining the Russian military and were then sent to fight in a war in Ukraine, according to NDTV.

Gagandeep Singh (24), Lovepreet Singh (24), Narain Singh (22), Gurpreet Singh (21), Gurpreet Singh (23), Harsh Kumar (20), and Abhishek Kumar (21) are the seven Indians that have been identified. According to The Hindu, two of the workers are from Haryana, while the other five are reportedly from Punjab.

The seven men can be seen wearing skull caps or military winter jackets in a 105-second video that has been making the rounds on social media platform X (formerly Twitter). There is a sealed window at one end of the messy, poorly lit room in which they are nestled. Six of them are huddled together in a corner, and the seventh, Harsh, from Karnal, Haryana, records a video message explaining their situation and pleading for help.

According to NDTV, the group of seven people went to Russia to celebrate New Year; they left on 27 December. The group had a visa that was valid for 90 days but then left and travelled to Belarus (Euproe), unaware of the visa requirements.

Harsh said in the video, “An agent offered to take us to Belarus… we were not aware we needed a visa. When we went to Belarus (without a visa) the agent asked us for more money and then abandoned us. The police caught us and handed us over to Russian authorities, who made us sign documents.”

He added, “Now they (Russia) are forcing us to fight in the war against Ukraine.”

According to Harsh’s family, he had also looked for work overseas and was informed that going through Russia would make it simpler for him to emigrate to the nation of his choice.According to Harsh’s brother, he received weaponry training and was sent to the Donestsk area.

Gurpreet Singh’s brother Amrit Singh, who is purportedly also visible in the footage, told NDTV that the men were “forced” into serving in the military.

Amrit Singh was quoted as saying, “They were forced to join the army there since the documents which they signed in Belarus were in the Russian language. It said they either accept imprisonment for 10 years or join the Russian army.”

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Seven Indian tourists tricked, forced to join army to fight in Russia-Ukraine war asks for help