Relatives of Dominicans recruited by Russia demand their return at embassy

Families of Dominicans sent to fight in Ukraine are demanding information and the return of their loved ones. Here is what the Russian ambassador said.

Relatives of Dominicans recruited by Russia to fight in the war in Ukraine were received Monday by the Russian ambassador in Santo Domingo. They asked him for information about their loved ones and demanded their return home. The protesters had called a prayer vigil outside the embassy, but the demonstration was suspended after the meeting.

According to the families, dozens of Dominicans signed individual contracts to work in Russia without knowing they would be sent to war. Beatriz Melo, whose relative was recruited by the Russian army, told EFE that her relative, a mechanic by trade, was deceived. "What we want is for them to bring them back to us," she said. Melo also said the recruits go hungry and cold, and complained that President Luis Abinader has not received them.

Carlos Sánchez Díaz, coordinator of the Dominican Committee for Human Rights in the Southern Region, who advises these families, estimates that about 150 Dominicans are fighting in Ukraine. According to him, more than fifty want to return to the country. He asked that each case be clarified, along with the conditions of their contracts and their validity under international law and the Dominican state.

The Russian ambassador, Alexey Victorovich Serendin, told the families that "the doors of the embassy are always open." He defended that the Russian Ministry of Defense "does not deceive anyone," because the contract "has everything stipulated" and "can be read several times." Even so, he acknowledged that "how" these Dominicans were lured to Russia is "another matter."

Serendin said the embassy is in "permanent" contact with the Dominican Foreign Ministry, which, he said, "is working intensively" on the case. For its part, the Dominican government hired legal advisers in Russia to assess the legal situation of its citizens. Last month, the Foreign Ministry secured the return of four nationals who, once in Russia, decided not to sign the contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense.