KHARKIV — Hushruzjon Salohidinov, a 26-year-old Central Asian migrant who had been working as a courier in Saint Petersburg, was captured by Ukrainian forces in January 2026 after being coerced into joining the Russian military. He is now held at a prisoner-of-war facility in northeastern Ukraine.

Salohidinov was arrested while picking up a parcel that police claimed contained money stolen from elderly women. He spent nine months in the Kresty-2 pre-trial detention center before a judge refused to start his trial because of weak evidence. Despite the case's collapse, prison wardens threatened Salohidinov with gang rape by HIV-infected inmates unless he volunteered to fight in Ukraine. Wardens also promised him a sign-up bonus of 2 million rubles, a monthly salary of 200,000 rubles, and amnesty from all convictions. In autumn 2025, Salohidinov signed up. He left his debit card containing his sign-up bonus with his parents.

After signing the contract, he was sent to Voronezh for three weeks of training. During training, drill sergeants told conscripts that their standard-issue flak jackets, helmets, boots, and flashlights were of subpar quality and urged them to contribute one million rubles each for better gear. Salohidinov was ordered to work in a kitchen and was verbally abused and beaten for the slightest transgression. Of 28 men in his unit, 21 were Muslims, and their ethnic Russian officers ignored their pleas not to have pork in meals. Commanders told the conscripts that if they surrendered, they would be tortured, maimed, and have their arms and fingers broken.

In early January 2026, the conscripts were bused to the Russia-occupied Luhansk region of Ukraine. A grenade explosion near Salohidinov damaged his left eardrum. He was subsequently captured by Ukrainian forces.

His case fits a broader pattern that began in 2023, when police in Russia began rounding up people who did not look Slavic, charging them with alleged transgressions including lack of registration, expired or fake permits, or blurred stamps on their documents. Migrants are sometimes bused directly to conscription offices. In Salohidinov's own squad, an Uzbek recruit who did not speak Russian was deceived into volunteering while signing papers at a migration center. Russia has attracted millions of labor migrants from ex-Soviet Central Asian countries, particularly Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan.

Alisher Ilkhamov, head of the Central Asia Due Diligence think tank, said the main way of recruiting migrants is pressure with threats of deportation. Chief prosecutor Alexander Bastrykin said 20,000 Central Asians with Russian passports were sent to the front line in 2025, up from 10,000 in 2024. Coerced Central Asian soldiers have an estimated life expectancy of about four months on the front line.