Bring him home: Kin defend Indian who laid arms in Ukraine

The family of Sahil Hussein, who left his home in Gujarat's Morbi two years ago to study computer science in Russia, learned from a Ukrainian military video that the 22-year-old had surrendered on a battlefield thousands of kilometres away.

- Maulik Pathak

Now his mother and maternal uncle are being questioned in Ahmedabad, while his grandmother and aunt have locked themselves inside their small yellow house, too frightened to emerge.

Hussein, the family believes, was framed. In the video that emerged on Tuesday, the man is seen speaking in Russian and stating he had been sentenced to seven years in a Russian prison on drug-related charges.

"I didn't want to stay in prison so I signed a contract for the special military operation. But I wanted to get out of there," Hussein said, using Russia's term for the invasion of Ukraine.