Three soldiers from the United Arab Emirates Armed Forces and an officer from the Bahrain Defense Force were killed in an attack at a military base in Somalia’s capital, the UAE’s defense ministry said Sunday.

The attack took place at the General Gordon military base in Mogadishu on Saturday night, the ministry said.

UAE personnel had been training soldiers from the Somali Armed Forces as part of an agreement between the UAE and Somalia, the ministry said. Two others were injured during the attack, it added.

An army officer told Reuters that the gunman was a newly trained Somali soldier. “The soldier opened fire on UAE trainers and Somali military officials when they started praying,” the official said.

Reuters reported the al Qaeda-linked terror group al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack via a statement on its Radio al Andalus.

“We understand the soldier had defected from al-Shabaab before he was recruited as a soldier by Somalia and UAE,” the army official said.

Al-Shabaab was designated as a terrorist group by the US in 2008 and by a UN Security Council committee in 2010.

Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud condemned the attack and instructed Somalia’s security agencies to conduct a “thorough and urgent investigation.”

The UAE said it would cooperate with the Somali government in investigating what it called a terrorist attack, and reiterated its resolve to combat terrorism and maintain peace and stability in the region.

Correction: This story has been updated to remove an errant description of the army officer who spoke to Reuters.

Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence claims it has confirmed the use of Starlink satellite communications by Russian forces in occupied areas.

It says it has intercepted conversations which indicate the Starlink terminals are being used to provide internet access to Russia’s 83rd Air Assault Brigade operating in the Donetsk region.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX company, which owns Starlink, says it does not do business of any kind with the Russian government or its military.

“If SpaceX obtains knowledge that a Starlink terminal is being used by a sanctioned or unauthorized party, we investigate the claim and take actions to deactivate the terminal if confirmed,” the company said in a statement.

Starlink, which uses a network of satellites to provide broadband, says its service will not work in Russia, although the statement didn’t address whether it would work in occupied Ukraine.

The service plays a crucial role in Ukrainian battlefield communications. Last year, Kyrylo Budanov, head of the Main Ukrainian Intelligence Directorate, said “absolutely all front lines are using them.”

Ukraine’s claim follows revelations about the satellite system’s use in the war made in a biography of Starlink’s owner Elon Musk, written by Walter Isaacson.

According to an excerpt from the book, Musk secretly ordered his engineers to turn off his company’s Starlink satellite communications network near the Crimean coast last year to disrupt a Ukrainian sneak attack on the Russian naval fleet.

As Ukrainian submarine drones strapped with explosives approached the Russian fleet, they “lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly,” Isaacson writes.

Musk’s decision, which left Ukrainian officials begging him to turn the satellites back on, was driven by an acute fear that Russia would respond to a Ukrainian attack on Crimea with nuclear weapons, a fear driven home by Musk’s conversations with senior Russian officials, according to Isaacson.

His political party is effectively banned, his speeches are barred from television, and he faces at least 14 years in prison. But as the Pakistan election results show, Imran Khan cannot be suppressed.

Independent candidates affiliated with the former prime minister’s Pakistan Tehereek-e-Insaf (PTI) party secured the most parliamentary seats in last week’s nationwide election, the election commission announced Sunday.

It is a stunning victory for an incarcerated Khan who, two years ago faced a dramatic ouster as prime minister and most recently faced a military-led crackdown analysts say was designed to thwart the cricket icon’s return to power.

“You kept my trust, and your massive turnout has stunned everyone,” an AI-generated video of Khan shared by the PTI that mimicked his voice, said to his millions of followers shortly after his victory. “Now show the strength of protecting your vote.” Khan’s team has previously used AI to deliver his speeches from behind bars.

The continued success of Khan aligned candidates marks a seismic moment in the country’s recent history: It has delivered a stinging rebuke to the powerful military, a usually untouchable force that has long sat at the apex of power in Pakistan and – according to Khan’s aides and many supporters – cracked down on his party.

“As a Pakistani, it was profoundly empowering to witness the collective outcry against injustice manifested through the ballot,” said Hashim Ali Dogar, 20, from the city of Lahore.

“We have demonstrated our resilience in the face of injustice against political victimization, and we stand ready to do so again.”

Forming a government in a political vacuum

Despite the PTI backed independents winning the most seats in parliament, questions loom over what the next government of Pakistan will look like.

None of the three major parties have won the necessary seats to declare a majority in parliament and, therefore, will be unable to form government on their own, leaving it unclear who will be picked as the country’s next prime minister.

The results were also announced more than three days after polls closed, prompting accusations of electoral fraud from the PTI.

Shayan Bashir Nawaz, the PTI’s information secretary from the province of Punjab, alleged an analysis conducted by the party suggested “significant discrepancies” in some national assembly seats and called for peaceful protest against the delayed results.

“We will take all options that we have to correct this wrong, we will pursue all legal options, and we will pursue all constitutional options,” said Raoof Hassam, a senior leader of the PTI.

The military has said it remains “dedicated to upholding peace and security in the country and stand ready to provide unwavering support in safeguarding the democratic traditions of our state.”

If the PTI-backed candidates succeed in forming a government, it will usher Pakistan into an unprecedented era – one in which the ruling party is seemingly at odds with the military, while its leader remains behind bars.

But the “chances for a PTI-led government currently appear slim,” according to Madiha Afzal, fellow in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution in Washington. “They would need to join a parliamentary party, and also seek a coalition… They will also need to ensure that their candidates don’t switch over.”

The rise of Imran Khan

Pakistan, a nuclear-armed nation of 220 million has, since its inception in 1947, struggled with political and social instability following a traumatic partition that hastily divided British India along religious lines into two independent countries.

It’s a country where militant attacks are frequent, poverty is rampant, and violence against women is widespread. Ruled for much of its 76 years by political dynasties or military establishments, analysts say decades of perceived corruption and nepotism disenfranchised swathes of its population, who were clamoring for a clean break from Pakistan’s past.

Faced with a lingering economic crisis, many young voters in Pakistan, where the median age is just 22.7, viewed Khan’s PTI as a change from the elite political dynasties who they perceive as being out of touch with the issues facing the country’s people.

When he rose to power in 2018, it was, according to analysts, with the backing of the military. But when he fell out of favor with the generals just a few years later, and was dramatically ousted from power in a parliamentary no-confidence vote in 2022 for economic mismanagement, rather than backing down, Khan led an unprecedented revolt.

He drew tens of thousands to nationwide rallies in the streets, where he criticized the military and accused them of orchestrating his removal with the help of the United States – accusations both the military and the US deny. Millions tuned into Khan’s emotive online speeches, where he spoke of wiping out corruption and bringing change to Pakistan’s turbulent politics.

His message, and his skillful use of social media, inspired many young Pakistanis.

“Everyone can see where the preference lies. I wanted to give my first vote to Imran Khan,” said Rabiya Arooj, a 22-year-old first-time voter from the capital, Islamabad.

Yet, as Khan’s popularity grew, so too did his enemies, including, his supporters claim, powerful members of the military-backed establishment.

He was slapped with dozens of charges, arrested and sentenced to prison in three different cases, sending shockwaves through the country. His party’s cricket bat symbol was barred from appearing on the ballot, prompting accusations of “pre-poll rigging.”

The scale of suppression had many analysts believe Khan’s longtime rival, Nawaz Sharif, a former three-time prime minister and scion of the elite Sharif dynasty, would take the top job once again.

“The election result shows disenchantment of young Pakistanis with the military establishment and politics as usual,” said Husain Haqqani, a former Pakistani ambassador and scholar at the Hudson Institute in Washington D.C. and Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy in Abu Dhabi.

First time voter Manahil Ahmed said the “youth have made their voices heard.”

“Pakistan have come to the one realization it previously had always struggled with, which is that all power truly only rests in their will,” he said.

“The sense of emerging victorious despite all the odds stacked against us now runs deep. Deep enough for people to come to the conviction that they will now put in twice as much commitment to protect that victory.”

Uncertain future

Much of what lies ahead remains uncertain, with the clock ticking to establish a coalition government.

Sharif and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the other main candidate in the race and the scion of another political dynasty, have said their parties will work together to bring stability to Pakistan.

The unknown has many Pakistanis feeling a mix of emotions.

“On one hand, it’s empowering to see the youth actively participating and making their voices heard,” said Sundas Kalsoom from the city of Peshawar. “However, the delay in election results is frustrating and can lead to uncertainty and skepticism about the fairness of the process.”

Haqqani, the former ambassador said it would be in Pakistan’s best interest if “the people’s mandate was respected.”

“The worst-case scenario would be violence, crackdown, and backlash like Egypt in the aftermath of the so-called Arab Spring,” he said, referring to the anti-government protests that spread across much of the Middle East in the early 2010s.

Despite the uncertainty, analysts say one thing is clear.

“The decisiveness with which the Pakistani public has voted for the underdog says something about the health of democracy,” according to Fahd Humayun, assistant professor of Political Science & Neubauer Faculty Fellow at Tufts University.

“While public confidence in the country’s institutions has clearly fluctuated in the past few years, these elections, for all their flaws, have proven that there was considerable political mobilization around the issue of representation, and that should inspire hope for Pakistan’s future.”

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has hit back against “any suggestion” countries within the alliance would not defend one another after former US President Donald Trump said he would not abide by the collective defense clause at the heart of the alliance if reelected.

In what would be a stunning abandonment of a decades-long core US commitment, Trump, who is running for re-election in November, said during a campaign event Saturday he would encourage Russia to do “whatever the hell they want” to any NATO member country that doesn’t meet spending guidelines and would not offer such a country US protection.

In a statement Sunday, Stoltenberg said such comments put European and American soldiers at an increased risk.

“Any suggestion that allies will not defend each other undermines all of our security, including that of the US, and puts American and European soldiers at increased risk,” Stoltenberg said.

“I expect that regardless of who wins the presidential election the US will remain a strong and committed NATO Ally,” he said, while also stressing that any attack on a NATO country would be “met with a united and forceful response.”

Trump’s comments — which come amid an on-going war in Europe and rising concerns about Chinese activity in the South China Sea and toward Taiwan — will likely raise fresh questions among allies in Europe and Asia over the strength of US commitments.

During his time in office, Trump repeatedly railed against spending disparities within NATO and accused some countries of not meeting their obligations. He also criticized American defense pacts with Asian allies Japan and South Korea.

But the latest comments – the most direct indication he does not intend to defend NATO allies from Russian attack if he is elected – land at a time of starkly different circumstances compared to his time in office.

NATO is now heavily involved in supporting Ukraine’s defense following Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion, which has sparked a mass humanitarian crisis, plunged Europe into its largest conflict since the Second World War and seen Russian leader Vladimir Putin accused of war crimes by the International Criminal Court.

The US and its allies have supported Ukraine with crucial weaponry, training and economic support, though they have not sent troops to Ukraine, which is not a NATO member. The conflict has raised concerns Putin may have further expansionist ambitions, which the leader denies, or that a NATO country may become directly embroiled.

Russia’s invasion of its neighbor prompted Sweden and Finland to seek NATO membership and the collective protection it affords. Finland joined NATO in April 2023, doubling the alliance’s border with Russia. Sweden has faced numerous delays in its path to accession, notably from Turkey but has since made progress towards joining.

The NATO bloc has also moved to deepen collaboration with countries in the Indo-Pacific amid concerns about an increasingly assertive China. Separately, Washington has strengthened coordination with Japan and Korea, which are also warily monitoring ramped-up aggression from North Korea.

Japan, South Korea and the Philippines are all treaty allies with the United States in partnerships that date back decades and have been crucial to Washington’s military influence in the Pacific since the end of the Second World War.

The White House on Saturday slammed Trump’s comments as “appalling and unhinged” and contrasted them with President Joe Biden’s efforts to bolster American alliances for its national security.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Monday that “NATO cannot be an ‘a la carte’ military alliance… depending on the humor of the president of the US.”

European Council President Charles Michel also hit back against the comments and said they reemphasize the need to keep the alliance strong.

“Reckless statements on NATO’s security and Art 5 solidarity serve only Putin’s interest. They do not bring more security or peace to the world,” Michel said in a post on X, referring to the collective defense clause.

First created to provide European and North American nations collective security against the Soviet Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization now includes 31 countries throughout the wider region.

Enshrined in Article 5 of the treaty is the promise of collective defense — that an attack on one member nation is an attack on all the nations in the alliance.

Trump has for years inaccurately described how the bloc’s funding works.

NATO has a target that each member country spends a minimum of 2% of gross domestic product on defense, and most countries are not meeting that target. But the figure is a guideline and not a binding contract. Member countries haven’t been failing to pay their share of NATO’s common budget to run the organization.  
 
As of 2022, seven countries were meeting the 2% target, up from three in 2014, with European allies and Canada increasing spending for eight consecutive years, according to NATO.

At the Saturday event, Trump claimed “one of the presidents of a big country” at one point asked him whether the US would still defend the country if they were invaded by Russia even if they “don’t pay.”

“No, I would not protect you,” Trump claimed to recall telling that president. “In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You got to pay. You got to pay your bills.”

Biden said Sunday that Trump “is making it clear that he will abandon our NATO allies” and outlined the potential consequences of Trump’s comments.

“Trump’s admission that he intends to give Putin a greenlight for more war and violence, to continue his brutal assault against a free Ukraine, and to expand his aggression to the people of Poland and the Baltic States are appalling and dangerous,” Biden said in a statement via his campaign.

In the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the US leader has repeatedly said NATO is more united than ever before. Even prior to the war, he sought to bolster and repair American alliances following the Trump-era years of “America First.”

Trump’s comments also come as US lawmakers are deciding the direction of US support for Ukraine. The US Senate on Sunday took a step closer to passing a $95.3 billion foreign aid bill with crucial assistance for Ukraine and Israel following a key vote to move the package forward.

As the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine approaches, and with a new armed forces leadership team in place in Kyiv, Ukraine’s soldiers find themselves on the defensive across the eastern front line.

A series of reports on social media and on national television over the weekend paint a picture of Russians continuing to throw large numbers of men into battle, and stepping up further their use of drones, which it is now clear are one of the key weapons on the battlefield.

Avdiivka, to the northwest of Donetsk city, remains the scene of some of the heaviest fighting as Russian forces continue their push from the north into the center of town.

The DeepState mapping site has shown a series of Russian advances in recent days and now puts Moscow’s fighters in control of part of the railway line just north of the town’s station.

Ukraine’s commander of southern forces, Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, said Saturday that his logistics teams were still able to get supplies into the town and that he was rotating fresh fighters into the battle as well as setting up additional firing positions.

Even so, the DeepState mapping site suggests Russian forces are perhaps no more than several hundred meters away from the main supply route into town.

Serhii Tsekhotskyi, an officer with the 59th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade, told Ukrainian television that Russia was deploying large numbers of troop into the battle for Avdiivka. Many were being killed, he insisted.

“They do not spare their people, so we have a lot of work to do,” he said.

He also drew attention once again to the prevalence of drones, reporting some 70 bombs dropped from Russian UAVs on brigade positions in the town in one day alone.

“Their stock [of drones] is being replenished, they are constantly improving their UAVs, and are also using electronic warfare,” he said.

Both sides are locked in a technology competition with each other, developing ever more sophisticated drones, as well as refining the jamming capabilities designed to disable incoming UAVs.

Reports from Russian military bloggers paint a similar picture of slow but steady gain for Russia’s forces inside Avdiivka, though they stress some of the town’s key locations, not least the massive coke plant on the northwestern edge of town, remain in Ukrainian hands.

“Military officers on the ground report there is no need to rush with victory speeches,” one such blogger, Boris Rozhin, wrote.

In much the same way that Bakhmut acquired huge symbolic importance a year ago, as Russian forces closed in on the city, destroying it in the process, so Avdiivka appears to have adopted a similar significance.

Lying just a few kilometers north of Donetsk airport, captured by Russian forces in early 2015 after months of periodically heavy fighting, Avdiivka has been firmly in Moscow’s crosshairs ever since. With Russia’s presidential election just a few weeks away, its possible capture has taken on even greater value.

A challenge for the new chief

What to do about Avdiivka is arguably the most pressing challenge facing Ukraine’s new army chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, appointed Thursday to give the war a new focus.

As Commander of Land Forces, Syrskyi was seen as the key driver behind Ukraine’s decision to defend Bakhmut to the last, rather than execute an earlier withdrawal, as the US and other allies had reportedly been urging. The decision to keep fighting in the face of overwhelming Russian firepower earned him a reputation as a man willing to take high losses among his soldiers.

In his first statement since being appointed Commander-in-Chief, he appeared, at least in part, to acknowledge a need to address that, saying, “The lives and health of servicemen have always been and remain the main value of the Ukrainian army. Therefore, maintaining a balance between combat missions and the restoration of units and subunits with intensified education and training of personnel remains as relevant as ever.”

However, Syrskyi is under pressure from Ukraine’s political leadership to come up with a new plan that avoids “stagnation” on the battlefield, while at the same time not pushing for too many new conscripts, as a new mobilization bill makes its way through parliament.

His predecessor, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, was dismissed in part for describing the war as being in a “stalemate” situation after the much-anticipated counteroffensive last year failed to deliver gains of any note.

President Volodymyr Zelensky was also irritated by Zaluzhnyi’s suggestions he needed a huge mobilization drive to turn things around. Though the army chief has said he did not put a number on it, he became associated with an idea that half a million new soldiers were needed.

Regardless of how many draftees Syrskyi ends up requesting, evidence from multiple frontline locations continues to suggest Russia’s superior troop numbers are making a difference.

East of Kupiansk and the Oskil river, along the northernmost stretch of the battle, an army spokesman told Ukrainian television on Saturday that Russian forces were pressing.

“The enemy continues to move its reserves to replace those previously lost … The enemy is deploying Storm Z units [soldiers recruited from prison] and motorized infantry units, supported by artillery and drones. They are trying to move forward,” the spokesman said.

Altogether, Russia had 42,000 men stationed in the area – though not all at the frontline – along with 500 tanks and infantry fighting vehicles, he added.

Also under heavy pressure is Chasiv Yar, a town about 15 kilometers west of Bakhmut. Again, a local Ukrainian commander reported Russians attacking with “a huge force of personnel.”

The army spokesmen also said the other big Ukrainian shortcoming at present – low ammunition stocks – was being keenly felt.

Russia’s forces attacking Chasiv Yar from the flanks enjoyed a “several-fold advantage in the number of shellings. We need more shells, thousands and thousands of shells, especially 155mm ones,” he told national television.

Hungarian President Katalin Novak has announced that she is resigning from office following mounting public criticism over her decision to pardon a man implicated in a child sexual abuse case.

“I decided to grant a pardon last April, believing that the convict did not exploit the vulnerability of the children whom he had overseen,” Novak said in her speech during a national televised address on Saturday.

“I made a mistake, as the pardon and the lack of reasoning were conducive to triggering doubts about the zero tolerance that applies to pedophilia,” she said.

Thousands of protesters took to the streets of the country’s capital Budapest on Friday, calling for Novak to step down.

In April 2023, Novak had pardoned some two dozen people ahead of a visit by Pope Francis – among them the deputy director of a children’s home who had helped the former director hide his crimes. The director was sentenced to eight years in prison for sexually abusing underaged boys between 2004 and 2016, Reuters reported.

The deputy director received a three-year sentence.

Novak was away on an official visit to Doha when protesters arrived at her office, according to Reuters.

Hungarian opposition parties have demanded Novak’s resignation.

Novak is a close ally of Hungary’s hardline nationalist prime minister Viktor Orbán and was the former family minister. In 2022, she became the first woman to hold the largely ceremonial role of Hungarian president.

Saturday’s address was her final one as president, less than two years after she took office.

She apologized to victims and their families in her televised speech on Saturday, saying she had “made a mistake.”

Her apology was “to those whom I may have offended and to all the victims who might have felt that I did not stand up for them,” Novak said, adding that she had always “consistently advocated for the protection of children and families.”

Ramchandra Khadka stood in front of a temple in the middle of Kathmandu, Nepal, praying for his fellow countrymen who are fighting for Russia in Moscow’s war against Ukraine.

As the ceremonial bells rang and the sweet smell of incense filled the air, he lit candles and offered flowers to a deity. All he wants is for his Nepali friends to survive the brutal war.

Russia’s war in Ukraine is not the first battle Khadka has fought. He was among Nepal’s Maoist rebels, who fought a bloody war with the country’s forces for 10 years from the mid-1990s. He then went to Afghanistan after being hired by a private military contractor to assist NATO forces in the country. He thought he had experienced it all in his lifetime – bloodshed, death and pain. But, some 17 years after the Maoist war ended, with no hope of a job in Nepal, he decided to fly to Russia to join the country’s military for money.

“I didn’t join the Russian military for pleasure. I didn’t have any job opportunities in Nepal. But in hindsight, it wasn’t the right decision. We didn’t realize we would be sent to the frontlines that quickly and how horrible the situation would be,” Khadka said.

He arrived in Moscow in September last year. After only two weeks of training, he said, he was sent to the front lines in Bakhmut – a town in eastern Ukraine that saw some of the heaviest fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces – with a gun and a basic kit.

“There isn’t an inch of land in Bakhmut that’s not affected by bombs. All the trees, shrubs, and greenery… they are all gone. Most of the houses have been destroyed. The situation there is so gruesome that it makes you want to cry,” he recalled.

Khadka was deployed to Bakhmut twice and spent a total of one month there. During his second deployment, he was struck by a bullet in his hip. After he was rescued and taken a few hundred meters back from the front line, he was hit by shrapnel from a cluster bomb.

“I still get a headache when I think about the terrible scenes I saw in the war zone,” he said.

The package included at least $2,000 salary a month and a fast-tracked process to obtain a Russian passport. Nepal’s passport is ranked one of the worst in the world for global mobility, below North Korea, according to an index created by global citizenship and residence advisory firm Henley & Partners, and the Himalayan nation is among the world’s poorest, with a per capita GDP of $1,336 for 2022, according to World Bank data.

The Nepali government says about 200 of its citizens are fighting for the Russian army and that at least 13 Nepalis have been killed in the war zone. But lawmakers and rights’ campaigners in Nepal say those official estimates vastly underestimate the real numbers.

A prominent opposition Nepali lawmaker and former foreign minister, Bimala Rai Paudyal, told the upper house of the county’s parliament on Thursday that between 14,000 and 15,000 Nepalis are fighting on the front lines, citing testimony from men returning from the war zone, and called on the Russian authorities to provide the figures.

“The Russian government must have the data of how many foreign fighters have joined the Russian army and how many Nepalis are fighting for Russia,” she said.

Four Nepali fighters are currently being held as prisoners of war (POWs) by Ukraine, according to Nepal’s foreign ministry.

Kritu Bhandari, a Kathmandu-based politician and social campaigner, has become the leader of a group of family members of Nepali men fighting in Russia. She says around 2,000 families have approached her in recent weeks asking for help either to get in touch with their missing loved ones or to bring those who are still in contact home to the small South Asian nation.

Hundreds of families say their relatives in Russia haven’t been in contact for many weeks or months, according to Bhandari.

‘I try not to think of the worst’

Januka Sunar’s husband went to Russia three months ago to join the military. He hasn’t been in touch with his family in Nepal for two-and-a-half months.

“I’m very worried. I don’t know what happened to him. He may be injured… and I wonder if they will return his phone eventually. I’m scared. I try not to think of the worst,” she said.

Sunar said her husband, the sole breadwinner in the house, who used to work making silver jewelry and utensils, had joined the Russian army solely for money – to build a better life for the family. She has two children who live with her in a town on the outskirts of Kathmandu.

“If the worst has happened to him, it’ll be worse than going to hell for us. We don’t have a future for the rest of our lives,” she said.

Sunar burst into tears as she shared how she was unable to explain to her children where their father is.

“They say: ‘Where is our dad, mummy? All of our friend’s dads who went abroad for work have returned… when is our dad coming back? We want to talk to our dad just for once.’”

Sunar is desperate for help from the authorities. “We just want information – from our government or the Russian government. Just tell us about his condition. Please see if you can rescue him. If they want to keep him there… .at least we want to know how he is… and speak to him,” she said.

Buddhi Maya Tamang, who was also at the gathering, received a call at the end of January from a Russian number after midnight. She thought her husband, Shukra Tamang – a retired Nepali army soldier fighting for Russia – was the person calling.

It was someone else. A Nepali commander who was leading a unit on the front lines told her that her husband had been killed during the fighting.

“I was then speechless and senseless… I was hoping it was a prank call,” she said.

She hasn’t received confirmation of his death from either the Nepali or the Russian government.

“I just need an official proof of his condition – regardless of whether it’s good news or bad news.”

Recruits ‘from global south’

The academy was designed as a youth military academy and describes itself as a “patriotic education” center. It has been re-outfitted into a training academy for foreign mercenaries entering the ranks of the Russian army. This was where Khadka received his brief training.

“Over here they teach you how to assemble and fire guns,” explained Shishir Bishwokarma, a Nepali soldier who has documented his journey to Russia and life at the training camp on YouTube.

The geolocated social media video shows an indoor wrestling gym converted into a training area for familiarization with small arms such as AK-47s, while the gym’s old Moscow Oblast flag appears to have been switched out for the colors of the Russian defense ministry.

The soldier described his fellow academy cadets as coming from across the global south. He cited Afghan, Indian, Congolese and Egyptian classmates, among others. Class photos from Avangard posted on social media show dozens of what appear to be South Asian soldiers with native Russian instructors.

At this mechanized infantry training compound, which was geolocated with the help of the Bellingcat Discord community, a handful of South Asian soldiers in full combat gear appear to be familiarizing themselves with operating alongside armored vehicles and heavy weaponry, as well as packing gear bags and organizing into larger units among Russian soldiers.

One of Bishwokarma’s videos shows drones flying over the center of the Avangard academy complex, while he narrates “now guys, we have come to a drone class.”

“We don’t understand Russian, but they have turned on Russian movies in our waiting room so that we can watch,” he explains.

Multiple Nepalis enlisting in the Russian army have stated that they don’t speak Russian but explain that instructors at Avangard seek to accommodate this by training the men in English.

That language barrier has played a large part in the deaths of many Nepalis on the front lines, said Khadka, the former fighter.

“Sometimes you can’t even understand where you’re supposed to be going or how to get there,” he said.

Khadka said he used to communicate with Russian officers by using a voice-translating app – and many times, just hand signals.

“It’s the Nepalis and other foreign fighters that are actually fighting in the front of war zones. The Russians position themselves a few hundred meters back as support,” said Suman Tamang, who returned from Russia last week.

“Some of my friends were mistreated by the Russian commander when they tried to voice their concerns,” Tamang recalled.

The 39-year-old also said that the Ukrainians were attacking their position with drones, something his unit didn’t have. He blamed the lack of modern fighting machinery for their losses.

Some fighters claim that while they signed up for the money, they do not support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“It’s not right to invade another country. Everyone has the right to live. All countries should respect the sovereignty of another country. It’s not right for people of any country to be killed in such a hideous way. It’s not right for tens of thousands of people to die for the interest of a few,” Khadka said.

Each year, around 400,000 people are estimated to enter the Nepali job market with limited skills and opportunities. A staggering 19.2% youth unemployment rate among individuals aged 15 to 29 underscores the hurdle the younger demographic faces in the pursuit of employment.

Bonuses paid

“The recruiters get very happy when Nepalis show up,” a former fighter said.

A one-year contract is signed and the men get a Russian bank account, where at least $2,000 monthly salary is deposited. Many fighters say bonuses were also given – and the longer they stay on the front lines, the more bonuses they receive. Some say they made up to $4,000 a month.

Several of the Nepalis who fought for Russia said they had received only brief training before being sent into combat.

Such a short training period before sending Nepali soldiers to fight “shows the desperation of the Russian government and their need for human resources on the frontline,” said Binoj Basnyat, a retired major general from the Nepali army, who now works as a strategic analyst.

Like many Nepalis who fled Russia without being discharged from their contracts, Sharma has no idea how to withdraw the money he still has in a Russian bank account.

“After I escaped from the military camp, it took me three days to get to Moscow. I was worried that by going to a bank to withdraw the money, I would risk getting caught,” he said. “I can access my bank account on my phone, but I don’t know if it’s possible to transfer that money overseas.”

Sharma, a retired Nepali police officer, was working as a security guard in a Dubai hotel when a Nepali agent in Kathmandu contacted him about the terms Russia was offering for foreigners to join its military. Sharma was making around $450 a month in Dubai and was immediately lured by the offer.

“After seeing gruesome images on the frontlines, seeing your friends die next to you, realizing chances of survival is very slim…. you then realize the money is not worth it. That’s why I escaped,” he said.

Agents in Nepal charge between $5,000 and $7,000 to arrange a tourist visa for an individual through a third country, according to the police.

‘I’m done with fighting wars’

The Nepali government has now banned its citizens from traveling to Russia for work and has implemented stricter requirements for people trying to go to countries such as the UAE on a visit visa.

Nepal’s foreign ministry in December urged Russia to stop recruiting Nepali citizens and send home the remains of those killed in the war.

The minister said that Russia’s deputy foreign minister had last month assured him that “they will sort it out” with regard to Nepal’s concerns but acknowledged that Moscow hasn’t taken any steps so far.

“We don’t have any information that Russia is doing anything,” he said, stressing that Moscow should “respect Nepal’s point of view.”

“We have a traditional treaty with a few countries for the recruitment of our citizens in the military of those countries,” he explained. “But we don’t have such treaty with Russia for such type of military or security recruitment.”

The minister said he had asked to travel to Moscow to discuss the issue but was waiting for an invitation from the Russian government.

Saud also said Nepal was talking to Ukrainian officials about releasing the four Nepali POWs taken by Ukraine from the front lines. He said Ukraine had some “reservations” and “legal questions” which the Nepali government was working to address.

It’s unclear if there will be any legal consequences against individuals who either defy the Nepali government’s ban to travel to Russia for work or who take part in combat operations against Ukraine.

Kathmandu police said they broke up a racket last month, leading to the arrest of 18 people allegedly involved in sending Nepali men to join the Russian army.

They raided several hotels where those arrested were staying and confiscated dozens of passports and several hundred thousand Nepali rupees, the police said.

But Nepalis haven’t stopped flying to Russia.

Sharma, the man who recently returned, said he had met a few Nepalis in Moscow who had just arrived and were looking to get into the army.

Kathmandu police chief Bhupendra Bahadur Khatri said the number of Nepalis going to a third country on a visit visa to eventually fly to Russia had slowed but hadn’t completely stopped.

“We are getting some intelligence that some of these agents are still active in recruiting Nepal men. We have gathered some undercurrent of their activities, and our investigation continues,” Khatri said.

Basnyat, the analyst, blames political instability and rising unemployment in Nepal as a major factor driving Nepalis to seek out dangerous employment in Russia.

More than 15% of its people live below the poverty line. The estimated unemployment rate in 2022 was 11.1%, according to the World Bank, compared with 10.6% in 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic. Tens of thousands of Nepalis travel to Gulf countries for work every year, with international remittances amounting to nearly 23% of the country’s GDP. An overwhelming 70% of the country’s workforce is employed in the informal sector, exposing them to heightened job insecurity and limited protections.

Khadka is also planning to go to the Middle East as a migrant worker once he recovers from his conflict injuries.

“I want to do commercial farming in Nepal but it’s proving next to impossible for me to take a loan. I’m looking to go to one of the Gulf countries. I’m done with fighting wars,” he said.

Myanmar’s government has enforced a compulsory military service law as the junta continues to battle armed ethnic militias and resistance forces on multiple fronts across the nation.

All men aged 18 to 35 and women aged 18 to 27 are required to serve for up to two years under military command and specialists such as doctors aged up to 45 must serve for three years, state media said Saturday, according to Reuters.

The junta “issued the notification of the effectiveness of People’s Military Service Law starting from February 10, 2024,” televised state media reported Saturday.

The law was enacted in 2010 by a previous military government but had never been enforced before.

The introduction of the People’s Military Service Law maintains citizens have a duty to protect “non-disintegration of the union, non-disintegration of national solidarity and perpetuation of sovereignty,” state media said, adding the law has been enacted “in order to serve this duty.”

State media said the defense ministry would release details and instructions at a further date.

Myanmar’s military regime recently extended its state of emergency for another six months as it marked three years on February 1 since its deadly coup which ousted democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The fighting escalated last October, when powerful armed ethnic militias joined with resistance forces to mount major new offensives against the military.

Myanmar’s government has enforced a compulsory military service law as the junta continues to battle armed ethnic militias and resistance forces on multiple fronts across the nation.

All men aged 18 to 35 and women aged 18 to 27 are required to serve for up to two years under military command and specialists such as doctors aged up to 45 must serve for three years, state media said Saturday, according to Reuters.

The junta “issued the notification of the effectiveness of People’s Military Service Law starting from February 10, 2024,” televised state media reported Saturday.

The law was enacted in 2010 by a previous military government but had never been enforced before.

The introduction of the People’s Military Service Law maintains citizens have a duty to protect “non-disintegration of the union, non-disintegration of national solidarity and perpetuation of sovereignty,” state media said, adding the law has been enacted “in order to serve this duty.”

State media said the defense ministry would release details and instructions at a further date.

Myanmar’s military regime recently extended its state of emergency for another six months as it marked three years on February 1 since its deadly coup which ousted democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The fighting escalated last October, when powerful armed ethnic militias joined with resistance forces to mount major new offensives against the military.

Fourteen people were injured, including two seriously, after a tree fell onto the tracks of a children’s roller coaster at an amusement park in the Spanish region of Catalonia Sunday.

Strong winds caused the tree to fall on the “Tomahawk” children’s roller coaster at the “PortAventura World” park in Vila-Seca, about 90 kilometers (56 miles) from Barcelona on Sunday morning, according to the park.

Catalan emergency services said they had treated the 14 injured people, two of whom were taken to hospital with serious injuries.

Another three people were hospitalized with less severe injuries.

The emergency services did not provide any information on the ages of those injured.

“This Sunday morning, due to strong winds… there was an incident caused by a tree falling close to the Tomahawk ride,” the theme park said in a statement, per Reuters.

“Some of the branches hit visitors who were on the ride,” the statement added.

The PortAventura World park is the most visited amusement park in Spain and the sixth most visited in Europe, according to PortAventura.

The park said it would cooperate with authorities.