Captured Tajik tells of life on Ukraine frontlines alongside Russian forces | Russia-Ukraine war News

Names marked with an asterisk have been changed to protect identities.

In 2024, Mohammed* flew into St Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city, on his first trip abroad.

With its perfect grid, imposing imperial palaces and “white nights”, when the proximity to the Arctic Circle makes darkness disappear in late summer, St Petersburg was a far cry from home.

Mohammed arrived from Dushanbe, the sun-parched and overpopulated capital of…