He was without any documents, money, or a phone, wrapped in bandages and 2,500 miles away from his village in the Himalayas. In a Russian military hospital, Krishna Bahadur Shahi, an unemployed engineer from Nepal who had mistakenly joined Moscow’s army, made a vow to himself – he was getting home no matter what.
Feeling trapped in the underworld of human traffickers supplying foreign fighters to the Russian army for the war in Ukraine, Mr. Shahi knew he had to escape. After two failed attempts, he finally succeeded with the help of traffickers and a translator at the hospital.
This 24-year-old civil engineer from a poor village in Nepal had joined the Russian army for money, but found himself on the front lines in Ukraine, facing harsh conditions and mistreatment by his fellow soldiers. After being shot multiple times, he ended up in a hospital in Rostov-on-Don, contemplating suicide.
Desperate to escape returning to the front lines, he managed to contact his family with the help of a kind Russian orderly. This led to his eventual escape and return home, joining many other Nepali soldiers trying to flee the Russian army.