By AFP and Kontur | 2024-06-12

COLOMBO -- When Sri Lanka's economy crashed in 2022, residents sought work abroad wherever they could find it -- including veterans who joined Russian forces invading Ukraine.

Now the veterans -- some of whom paid their life savings for supposedly safe, lucrative jobs -- are desperate to come back home.

"What we ask is to help bring back our husbands," said Renuka Karunaratne, 49, who said a devious agent duped her husband into going to Russia.

Colombo's parliament set up an inquiry last month to track at least 2,000 battle-hardened Sri Lankans who reportedly enlisted on both sides of the Ukraine war, including in regular armies and mercenary groups.

With no communication for months, and reports of at least 16 Sri Lankans killed and 37 wounded, distraught families are pleading for help.

Sri Lanka June 11 said it had received assurances from Russia that it would stop recruiting Sri Lankans to fight in Ukraine.

Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ali Sabry raised the issue with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow on June 10, Sabry's ministry said in a statement.

Moscow will accept a delegation from Sri Lanka on June 26 to "review these issues in detail and take suitable action to arrest the situation," the statement said.

Losing hope

An unprecedented economic crisis in early 2022 left Sri Lanka too broke to import food, fuel and other essentials. Ultimately, it defaulted on its external debt.

About a dozen Sri Lankans are being held prisoners of war in Ukraine, after being lured there in pursuit of work, the Sri Lankan government says.

Advertisements shared on WhatsApp promised high wages.

Recruiters also promised plots of land in Russia, where foreign fighters and their families could settle.

Karunaratne said she and her husband paid $10,000 to an employment agent to get the job.

"We have sold everything we owned, including jewelry," she said while demonstrating outside the Russian embassy in Colombo last week.

"We mortgaged part of our house too."

Nilmini Chandima Dissanayake, 41, said hardship stemming from the downturn pushed her veteran husband to go to distant Russia.

"My husband was in the commando regiment for 22 years," Dissanayake told AFP. "He had retired; he did some odd jobs but found it was not enough to manage."

She has not heard from him since May 1, one month after he arrived in Moscow to take up an ostensibly noncombatant role.

"His last call was to plead to get him back home, to save his life," she said.

"Every passing day they lose hope of surviving."

'A dangerous situation'

The war in Ukraine has taken a heavy toll on Russian troops, and Moscow wants more cannon fodder.

Moscow is believed to have hired thousands of foreign combatants, many of them from South Asia.

Neither Russia nor Ukraine will say how many foreigners are fighting for them or how many they are holding as prisoners of war.

In parliament, Sri Lankan Deputy Defense Minister Premitha Tennakoon did not specify how many citizens were fighting on each side.

Colombo has remained neutral, but reports that Moscow supported the recruitment of Sri Lankan veterans have sparked tensions.

Police have arrested two retired Sri Lankan generals who are accused of recruiting for Russian mercenary firms, as well as six other suspects who allegedly helped them with logistics.

Sri Lanka is pushing Ukraine to release prisoners of war, and will send a delegation to Moscow, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Tharaka Balasuriya said.

"If Sri Lankans are in a dangerous situation, it's the duty of the government... to ensure that they are safely returned," Balasuriya said.

'Duped'

At least 22 Sri Lankans who joined Russian forces have deserted and returned home, defense officials said.

"They were duped," Defense Ministry spokesman Nalin Herath told AFP.

Hotel driver Anil Madusanka, 37, is one of them.

"Many people have [economic] problems," said Madusanka, now recovering at his home outside Colombo after seven terrifying weeks in Russia.

He thought he would be driving in Russia -- but instead was sent into combat in Ukraine.

Shrapnel tore into both his legs.

From a hospital, he fled to the Sri Lankan embassy in Moscow, which arranged his repatriation last month.

"I am lucky to have escaped," he said.