The Ukraine-Central Asia Telegram channel said on July 19 that a Kyrgyz citizen, Alisher Tursunov, was among the soldiers returned to Russia as part of a prisoner of war swap with Ukraine earlier this week.
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In late May, a video showing the 57-year-old Tursunov in Ukrainian custody appeared on the Internet. The man said police in the Russian city of Ryazan detained him and forced him to join the Russian military for its invasion of Ukraine. In return, he was promised money and Russian citizenship.
Tursunov then begged the Kyrgyz government to help him return home.
According to the Central Asian nation's laws, fighting in a foreign country for any side other than Kyrgyzstan is considered a crime.
Last month, another Kyrgyz man, whose name was not disclosed, was sentenced to five years in prison for joining Russian troops fighting in Ukraine.
The same month, a Kyrgyz man, Beknazar Borugul-uulu, who was sentenced to five years in prison in 2023 for joining Russia's Wagner mercenary group to fight in Ukraine was released due to a January presidential amnesty decree.
In January, a Bishkek court handed a suspended seven-year prison term to another Kyrgyz man, Askar Kubanychbek-uulu, for joining the Russian military in Ukraine.
According to the court's ruling, Kubanychbek-uulu was banned from leaving the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, while serving a three-year probation period that was part of his seven-year suspended sentence.
However, he managed to flee Kyrgyzstan and returned to Russia, where he signed a new contract with the Defense Ministry to join Moscow's armed forces.
Kyrgyz officials have said that the deaths of at least 10 Kyrgyz citizens have been confirmed in the war in Ukraine.
After Russia announced a partial mobilization in September 2022, Kyrgyz authorities warned Kyrgyz migrant workers in Russia that joining either the military occupying Ukraine or Ukraine's armed forces is considered “mercenary” work, which is punishable in the former Soviet republic by up to 15 years in prison.
The exact number of Kyrgyz nationals fighting in the conflict remains unknown.