Soldiers of misfortune: Vlogging, imprisonment and deaths of Bangladeshis in the Russia-Ukraine war

Mahedi Hasan did not set out for Russia to become a wartime Facebook vlogger, but that is his daily life now. With a collection of shaky videos from the trenches and barracks, edited with background music and captions that glorify how 'heroic' their works are, the social media profile of the Bangladeshi man now on the frontlines of the Russia-Ukraine war has over 117k followers.

Across social media, especially on Facebook, there are stories of many such Bangladeshis who left the country on work visas and ended up in a war. Some never planned for it, but others volunteered, only to find out later how brutal the reality of warfare can be. 

If you have not seen these clips on Facebook, it can sound unreal: men filming their daily routines from camps, uploading clips of training, of food, of the hardware they use in battle. Then there are other videos that portray the real yet grim picture of modern combat: drone attacks, gunfire, and the aftermath of explosions. 

These uploads have gone viral, earning millions of views and with them a curious mix of admiration, condemnation and curiosity.

Mahedi left from Rajshahi a year earlier with a friend named Yasin, and together, they joined the Russian military. A video he posted a month back was shot on 16 December 2024, which shows two young men talking about the long, difficult road they took to get here and how close they felt to "success". 

The caption on that video later read that Yasin is no more. 

According to the posts that circulated on Mahedi's timeline, Yasin died in a missile attack while fighting on the frontline in March. On Yasin's last public update, he had asked for prayers for Mahedi, who himself had been injured by a mine explosion.

Mahedi has admitted in multiple posts and comments that he was injured. He later returned from the frontlines and continued to run his Facebook page, now curating old footage shot in the warzone. 

The videos are edited the way many slick social media products are: short clips, background music that matches the tone the uploader wants to evoke, captions that underline bravery, camaraderie, or the rewards of having come here. Some show laughter in a bunk; some show a unit moving past a trench; others show damaged equipment or the sterile brutality of a field hospital. 

Mahedi's feed is a marketplace of justifications; he posts about money he claims he earned, about how "blessed" he feels in Russia, and about the camaraderie that kept him going. The result is a conflicted public conversation.

On one side, there are those who watch, mesmerise and ask how they themselves might take the same path. On the other side, there are voices that call it nothing more than desperation dressed up as recklessness — men risking their lives for countries that are not theirs, for pay that looks like a promise but is in reality a contract of expendability. 

The discussions on these pages are blunt and sometimes petty. Some viewers ask for advice on how to go to Russia. Other commenters are split between admiration and scorn. 

Behind the comments, the real-world consequences are messier. Even after returning from active combat, some of these men appear to be monetising their time in the war: the clips generate attention, which in turn draws sponsorship, paid inquiries or new followers.

Even among the vloggers themselves, there are arguments. A dozen or so of them post regularly about their wartime experiences, and they accuse each other of exaggerating, lying or downplaying the danger. 

One claims another "didn't join properly", or "was only ever at third position", as if rank in the chaos of battle could be neat evidence of courage. 

Md Sohel has recently gained popularity on social media as a wartime vlogger. Photo: Collected

Md Sohel, another soldier-turned-vlogger, openly clashed with Mahedi. 

"Mahedi fought only for 10 days… the Russian passport he flaunts is not even his," he retorted. 

Mahedi countered, claiming that Sohel had survived only because he fought in a less risky position, "third position", not the front line. 

Unlike Mahedi, Sohel and many others, whose stories have been quite popular among netizens, there are stories that stay almost entirely off the public radar. 

For instance, Arnob, a 28-year-old MBA student, is languishing somewhere inside a Russian jail, his family unaware of his predicament. 

On 18 October 2025, Arnob's mother received a call from his friends in Russia. They told her that Arnob had registered to join the Russia-Ukraine war, and that some people had come to his dormitory to take him away. 

The story sounded unreal at first. Why would her son, who had gone to study and was supposed to be preparing for his final semester of MBA, now be in military custody for trying to walk away from a contract he should never have had to sign in the first place.

Back in 2023, after completing his bachelor's, Arnob had gone to Russia for further studies and managed tuition through part-time jobs. He was close to finishing his MBA. 

His sister, Ananya, later tried to piece together what happened and what it might mean. "My brother lost his job a few months back, so he was struggling with how to manage the finances." Maybe from that thought, or maybe from the greed to earn quick money he decided to sign up for war.

"I have heard he was offered around Tk3 lakh per month in Russian currency and a pay of around Tk1 crore after a year of war. He was also promised citizenship in Russia," she said. 

She explained from what she heard from her brother's friends, in Russia, the call to join the war was for everyone, not only Russians. Some recruits were even paid extra if they performed well during training and were deemed suitable for the front line. 

"After a week of his training, we heard that he tried to flee and get out of the contract. Then he was taken to jail. We haven't been able to contact him ever since. On 18 December, there is supposed to be a hearing. Maybe that day we will know what he has done or what his offence was exactly. Till then, we have to just wait," Ananya further said.

And then there are those soldiers who never volunteered, but were trafficked under the pretense of jobs or study opportunities. Some fled once they saw the reality, seeking refuge from anyone who would help them. Some have perished to gunfire or explosions, some still fight, while others cannot be traced. 

The legal and administrative frameworks complicate the matter further. There is no visa category that allows a foreign national to enter another country specifically to join its military forces; those who left Bangladesh for work or study did so under visas that theoretically bind them to particular purposes. 

When a migrant worker applies for a foreign job, the process usually routes through the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET) for verification and certification. 

While asked about these incidents, Mohammad Abdul Hai, BMET's additional director general, told us plainly, "We don't have any report like that about Bangladeshis joining the Russian war. We don't know about it. Everyone who is going to any country with a work visa must go through our verification. We verify them, the workplace they will join and the agency that takes them. If we find such reports and we find any of them guilty, we will definitely take some actions. But we haven't received anything like that. If you can provide me with the details and their passport numbers then probably we can look out for those individuals."

So the search for answers continued at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Public Diplomacy Wing responded, formally, but without real substance. 

Director General SM Mahbubul Alam asked for the questionnaire we had prepared and he replied, writing, "Upon receipt of a response from the relevant Wing of the Ministry, I shall share with you." After that, silence, and no substantive reply was given.

Because the issue involves Russia, we also reached the Russian embassy in Dhaka. The press attaché, Sofia Kutepova, acknowledged the questions we posed and said she would discuss them with her colleagues in the consular section. On queries regarding whether foreign nationals could join Russia's military services, the embassy gave a written response, "The Embassy of Russia in Bangladesh has no authority to recruit foreign citizens for military service.

Every employment visa is issued for a specific company. Before going to Russia, Bangladeshis have to sign a notary document, which states that they are not allowed to join the army and change their work place without receiving permission from their employer and notifying the Embassy of Bangladesh in Moscow. In case a foreign migrant wants to work for another Russian company, he or she has to return to Bangladesh, and apply for employment visa once again with a new invitation. This procedure is established to guarantee the security of Bangladeshi employees, hiring and recruiting companies.

Unfortunately, some Bangladeshi citizens working in Russia find illegal ways to join the army, and end up in the special military operation zone. Russian Embassy does not possess information about such schemes."