Bangladeshi soldier killed in missile strike in Ukraine

A Bangladeshi youth who fought for Russia against Ukraine was killed in a missile attack on 27 March.

A Bangladeshi youth who fought for Russia against Ukraine was killed in a missile attack on 27 March.

Yasin Sheikh was a resident of Douhakhola village under Gouripur upazila in Mymensingh. He took part in the war as a contract soldier in the Russian army, according to the family.

Four soldiers, including Yasin, were killed in the attack and the news reached his family the next day of Eid-ul-Fitr through Yasin’s friend Mehedi, who also lives in Russia.

Earlier, Yasin, who nurtured a dream of joining the Bangladesh Army, posted a video message on his Facebook account on 1 March and shared his thoughts on issues like going to Russia, joining the army there, and thus fulfilling his dream.

In January last year, he applied for a job in a Chinese firm in Russia and left Bangladesh in September after getting an offer letter from the company.

After working for the company for three months, he applied online and joined the Russian army as a contract soldier.

He also shared that joining Bangladesh’s student-led movement gave him the courage to join the war and that he would have no regrets if he died in the war.

With his mother and an elder brother, Yasin was the youngest of his three-member family.

Elder brother Ruhul Amin, a businessman by profession, bore Yasin’s educational and foreign travel expenses.

Rafiqul Islam, a cousin of the deceased, said Yasin learnt Russian at an institution in Dhaka to go to Russia, and with the help of a friend, he got a good job in a company in the country later.

“Everything was going well until he joined the Russian army.”

During joining the army, Rafiqul said, officials of the agency that sent Yasin to Russia took his mother and elder brother to Dhaka and got their signatures on a no-objection letter.

“Yasin talked to her mother for the last time on 26 March and said he would send Tk10 lakh within a few days,” he added.

Meanwhile, a pall of gloom has descended on Douhakhola village following the death of Yasin with his family finding it difficult about the process of bringing the body home for funeral rites.