We should not jump the gun, says Jaishankar in Lok Sabha on release of 69 Indians from Russian Army

New Delhi: External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Friday advised some members of the Lok Sabha not to jump the gun to conclude Russia was not serious about New Delhi's efforts for the release of 69 Indians who have been "misled" to join the Russian Army to fight in the war against Ukraine. He emphasised that the matter was taken up by PM Narendra Modi with Russian President Vladmir Putin and that efforts are on to get the Indians' release.

"We should not jump the gun and say Russians are not serious on this matter. I think it is important to hold the Russian government to their word and most important for us, we are not here to score points or enter into debates. We are here to get back those 69 people because Indian citizens should not be serving in the army of foreign countries," the minister said during the Question Hour.

He was replying to Asaduddin Owaisi, who wanted to know what action was being taken against people who misled those Indians. Responding to further questions on the matter from Adoor Prakash (Congress), who said five from his constituency too had been similarly misled to join the Russian army, the minister said: "We take this issue very seriously. I have myself raised it numerous times with the Russian foreign minister. When the PM was in Moscow last month, he raised it personally with President Putin and got the assurance that any Indian national in the service of the Russian army will be discharged and released."


As many as 91 Indians had reportedly been recruited into the Russian army. While eight of them died, 14 were discharged or have come back to India with the government's assistance and 69 are awaiting release.

Giving the perspective from the other side, Jaishankar said the Russian authorities maintain that these Indian nationals "entered into contracts" for services with the Russian army. "We are not necessarily subscribing to that. I think in many cases there are reasons to indicate that our nationals were misled, that they were told that they were going for some other job and then they were deployed with the Russian army," he said.