A Sri Lankan soldier who has joined the Ukrainian army.
“What is your name?” barks the gruff voice off-camera.
“Fernando,” replies the Sri Lankan soldier, terrified and in tears. His hands are bound together and he is still wearing his military issued flak jacket and helmet. His captors hand him a Red Bull to drink, as they continue to question him.
‘Fernando’ is just one of hundreds of Sri Lankans currently fighting on the frontlines between Ukraine and Russia. As the war ramped up, hundreds of Sri Lankan soldiers, many of whom had participated in the island’s own war, enlisted in the fight on both sides, as they sought an income abroad. Several have reportedly been killed so far.
Amidst the deaths however, a growing number are being caught as prisoners of war and paraded on Telegram groups – by both sides.
Videos obtained by the Tamil Guardian show Ukrainian and Russian channels posting videos or photographs of captured or killed Sri Lankan soldiers. It remains unclear whether those who are alive have been repatriated to the island.
'A huge economic problem in Sri Lanka'
For many Sri Lankan soldiers, it didn’t matter which side of the war they fought for. They were simply looking to support their families back on the island, as Sri Lanka struggled with one of the most devastating economic crises in decades.
“Last 3 years, a huge economic problem in Sri Lanka,” says another captured soldier, as he is interrogated on video by Ukrainian troops. “Money not enough to our life.”
The video, posted in a Ukrainian military Telegram group on April 17, 2024, shows the Sri Lankan in an undisclosed location, dressed in civilian clothes. “My two sons and wife, I don’t call for 2 months,” he says in tears.
The financial crisis on the island, which began to take hold in 2022, is ostensibly the reason that has driven these, almost entirely Sinhala, men to the frontlines of another war. A soaring cost of living means that the prices of food and basic medicines became unaffordable for many, driving many from the South overseas. According to a report in Al Jazeera last year, Sri Lankans living in Russia stated that some have been lured into the military after being offered of salaries up to $3,000 a month and the prospect of Russian citizenship.
A caption at the end of the video claims that the man was recruited by the Russian Embassy in Colombo, a claim that the embassy has vigorously denied. The Russian Embassy in Colombo rejected allegations stating that the diplomatic mission “possessed neither information about the participation of Sri Lankan nationals on the Russian side, nor any data regarding possible numbers of them”.
“Neither are we aware of a local recruiting agency which ostensibly hires people to join such activities while deceiving about their true nature,” it added.
Russian ambassador to Sri Lanka Levan S. Dzhagaryan however added that any Sri Lankan joining the Russian military, would have down so voluntarily. “My president, my president Putin clarified many times that (if) any foreigner would like to voluntarily, I underline, voluntarily join Russian armed forces there is no objection,” he is reported to have said. “Because look on the (other) side how many mercenaries are fighting for Ukraine, from different countries.”
“The situation in Russia is very unfortunate," admitted then Sri Lanka’s Junior Foreign Minister Tharaka Balasuriya last year, as he confirmed least 455 Sri Lankans are fighting for the Russian army. He admitted however that the real number “could be much higher”.
Earlier in 2023, footage obtained by the Tamil Guardian shows dozens of Sri Lankan soldiers, dressed in Russian military uniform, on active duty in the war zone. The exact date and location has not been verified.
Yet another video posted in July 2024 claims to show a man identified as 44-year-old Kediwela Mudiyanselage Thissa Kumara. “Where from?” questions the voice of camera. “Sri Lanka,” he replies, before he is told to repeat a profanity about Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Kumara may be one of the luckier soldiers.
A Sri Lankan soldier who joined the Russian army. He was killed in a Ukrainian drone strike.
Other messages posted on Russian-linked channels detail the Sri Lankans who were killed fighting for Moscow. One such photograph, posted on June 29, 2024, is of a man described as a Sri Lankan “volunteer”.
“Regarding the guys from Sri Lanka, I personally knew three of them,” claims one anonymous account. He describes how on May 15, 2024, the unit with Sri Lankans came under attack from artillery fire. The Ukrainians then launched an attack with FPV drones. The Sri Lankans reportedly “covered a wounded serviceman of the Russian Armed Forces with themselves”.
The Russian survived. The Sri Lankan soldier was killed by the drone.
A history of war crimes
Though there has been on single report of three Tamils forcibly conscripted into the Russian military as they attempted to travel to Europe, almost all of the other recruits in this war are Sinhalese.
Amongst them are hundreds of Sri Lankan army veterans, including many who participated in military offensives as the state carried out a genocide of Tamils in the North-East. Soldiers from the Sri Lankan military stand accused of repeatedly bombing hospitals, rape, torture, executing Tamils who surrendered and committing a host of massacres throughout the decades of armed conflict.
To date, no one has been held accountable for those crimes, with the Sri Lankan government pledging to protect all accused war criminals.
One such soldier who went to join the conflict between Russia and Ukraine was Patapili Hewage Shehan Ranishka, a former soldier from the 1st Commando Regiment of the Sri Lanka Army. He describes how he had two years of combat experience at the “peak of the war,” when the Sri Lankan military launched an offensive that would culminate in the Mullivaikkal genocide and the massacres of tens of thousands of Tamils. The unit is notorious for massacres and attacks on civilians committed through the Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol (LRRP) unit. Hewage left the army in 2019 and reportedly became a pilot for SriLankan Airlines.
Ukraine’s International Legion Fund interviewed him in December 2022 and described him as a “enthusiastic member”. The situation in Ukraine is “far more complicated” than in Sri Lanka, he claimed stating that Colombo was fighting a “terrorist group”.
A message in a Ukrainin Telegram channel paying tribute to Hewage.
Hewage and two other former Sri Lankan military personnel were killed in Bakhmu in December 2023. The Sri Lankan government reportedly refuse to accept his body.
The war continues
It is not known if any soldiers who are currently fighting committed war crimes themselves in Sri Lanka. As the war between Russia and Ukraine continues to grind on, Sri Lankans continue to be involved however. Hundreds of fighters are still in active combat and it seems there is no shortage of willing participants.
With more than 15 years passing since the end of the armed conflict, the Sri Lankan military remains one of the largest in the world per capita, with thousands of soldiers still occupying the Tamil North-East. There are no signs of any Tamil armed resistance, yet the occupation continues. Soldiers are now running farms, restaurants, and tourist resorts alongside manning military checkpoints and intimidating Tamil civilians.
Though exact figures are not known, the size of the Sri Lankan military is staggering. In 2018, the World Bank estimated there were 317,000 service personnel in the country, twice the size of the UK’s regular forces. In some areas across the Tamil homeland, there are as many as one soldier for every two civilians.
With so many soldiers still on duty and the island continuing to reel from an economic crisis, despite the risk of death or capture, the call to become mercenaries in another war will continue to tempt many.