February 26, 2024: Russia was unable to recruit, mobilize or conscript enough Russians to fight in Ukraine. Even before the end of 2023, Russia sought ways to deal with this problem. One solution was recruiting 15,000 Nepalese men to fight in Ukraine. The Nepalese Russia recruited were not from the Gurkha region. Gurkha soldiers are much in demand as mercenaries and battalions of them serve in the British and Indian armies. Gurkhas were not interested in fighting for the Russians in Ukraine, so the Russians turned to non- Gurkha Nepalese who needed a job, any job, even if it was a dangerous one. The Nepal recruits were given little training when they entered Russian service in mid-2023. The Nepal troops were soon in Ukraine where they suffered casualties. At least ten were known to have died and there are probably more dead. Four Nepalese soldiers were captured by Ukrainian forces and held as prisoners of war. Families back in Nepal have appealed to Nepalese politicians to find a way they can contact their men in Ukraine. Russia does not provide any way for their Nepal mercenaries to send or receive mail to anyone in Nepal. That led Nepal to ban any more Russian recruiting in Nepal. Earlier Cuba did the same when Russian tried to recruit Cuban men to fight as mercenaries in Ukraine.

Russia has been seeking countries where they can recruit local men to be mercenaries but has had little or no success. Russia has a bad reputation because they are the ones that invaded Ukraine and now the Russians are losing, and most countries are fine with that or don’t care as long as the Russians do not try to recruit local men to be mercenaries.