Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) and Foreign Minister Narayan Kaji Shrestha has said that Russia is ready to terminate contracts with Nepalis recruited in the Russian forces if they wish to return home.
Speaking during the House of Representatives (HoR) meeting on Monday, DPM Shrestha has revealed that the Russian Foreign Ministry has already agreed in principle for that. He has added that modality for that, however, has yet to be agreed and the Nepali Embassy in Moscow has been continuously following up on the matter.
Reminding that he has talked with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov and met the Russian ambassador to Nepal after assuming office he has stated that the government has made different written and verbal proposals to Russia after formal confirmation of death of Nepalis fighting for Russia.
He has claimed that the government has talked about reparations for families of the fighters who have been killed or injured and bringing bodies of the killed fighters, and demanded details about the number of Nepalis fighting for Russia and their status, and urged Russia to not recruit Nepalis for fighting and to send those already recruited back to Nepal.
He has also stated that Russia has initiated the process of providing reparations, and insurance amount to the families of the killed fighters. He has also revealed that the government is working seriously about bringing back those captured by Ukraine as prisoners of war.
Ukraine recently urged developing countries including Nepal to stop their citizens from being recruited to fight for Russia in its war against Ukraine.
The Ukrainian government said so on Friday presenting what it claimed were eight prisoners of war from including five men from Nepal, and one each from Cuba, Somalia and Sierra Leone, according to Reuters.
"By showing these citizens who are captured, we are saying that perhaps it is necessary to use more radical, more effective steps so that tens, hundreds of these people won't be conned by agitators," Reuters quoted Petro Yatsenko, a representative at the Ukrainian government's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, as telling reporters in Kyiv.
"If we take a country with a low level of income per population, there is a high probability that some citizens of that country may be recruited by Russia and used as storm troopers, cannon fodder."
Spokesperson with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Amrit Bahadur Rai on Sunday claimed that the government already knew about capture of those five Nepalis and added that the Ukrainian authorities apparently recorded their statement for the second time. “They were made public in course of that. They are not new prisoners of war,” Rai added.
Rai revealed that the five presented by Ukraine on Friday were among the six previously captured Nepalis. Rai has identified the six as Bibek Khatri of Rajapur Municipality 1, Bardiya; Siddhartha Dhakal of Mandan Deupur Municipality 6, Kavre; Bikash Rai of Letang Municipality 2, Morang; Pratik Pun of Dang; Sujan Subedi of Khairahani, Chitwan; and Ishwar Lamichhane of Gorkha.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday said that seven more Nepalis serving in Russian forces were killed in Ukraine.
Earlier, the government had confirmed the deaths of 12 Nepalis who had joined Russian forces. The latest confirmation takes the death toll of Nepalis serving in Russian forces to 19.
