Kazakhstan in Talks with Russia Over Return of War-Bound Citizens

Kazakhstan is negotiating the return of some 15 of its citizens from a “combat zone” in Russia, the government said on October 7, days after videos emerged showing several young Kazakhstani men appealing for help to avoid being sent to fight in Ukraine.The men reportedly traveled to Russia to find work before being recruited into the Russian army under false pretenses.According to one such individual, 19-year-old Ainabek Keldebek, the group had initially signed paperwork for employment in a “security agency,” which turned out to be fraudulent. “We were told we would be working,” Keldebek said in a video circulating widely on social media, “Then we were told: ‘That’s it — now you’re going to war.Either go to war, or you’ll get 15 years [in prison].’” In another video, 19-year-old Kaisar Almas, requested urgent help from Kazakhstani citizens, saying that five individuals from the group had already been “taken to war” and that the rest were in imminent danger of being sent to the frontline, despite having “not signed anything of their own free will.” In its October 7 statement, Kazakhstan’s foreign ministry said that a hotline has been set up for its citizens to request extraction from Russia, which, after a process of verification, would be used to send a “compiled list” to its counterparts in Moscow.