Two Tajik Men Killed While Fighting In Russian Army's Ranks In Ukraine Buried In Homeland

The bodies of two Tajiks killed in the Ukraine war have been buried in Tajikistan's Khatlon region.

Two Tajik men who served in the Russian Army and were killed during Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine have been buried in Tajikistan.

Sources close to the government told RFE/RL on March 23 that, in all, the bodies of at least four Tajik men who were killed while fighting alongside Russian armed forces in Ukraine had been repatriated to Tajikistan.

RFE/RL's correspondents found out the identities of two Tajiks who were buried in recent days in Tajikistan's Khatlon and Sughd regions -- 50-year-old Saidakbar Saidov and 38-year-old Ramazon Murtazoev, who served in the Russian Army and were killed in Ukraine.

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Many Tajiks have dual Tajik-Russian citizenship which is allowed by a special agreement between Dushanbe and Moscow.

Moscow has not provided an update on casualty figures since early in the invasion, when it said on March 2 that 498 soldiers had been killed.

However, a NATO official told AP that the Russian death toll was likely to be between 7,000 and 14,000, although numbers on both sides are impossible to independently confirm.