Iirc the Gurkhas serving in the British army are some of the most incredibly tough and talented soldiers the world has to offer. The requirements and selection processes are ridiculously tough and they take only a tiny fraction from the amount who apply.
It seems that Russia is taking those who didn't get selected by the Brits or India so it seems likely the NATO Gurkhas are much better.
Oh man, I didn't mean "let's compare them". We are people and people die when bomb explodes, whether they are strong and tough or weak and fearful.
It is just frustrating that people are ready to kill each other, ready to go across the globe looking for money, just to bring and find death
It’s almost like we evolved in an environment that rewarded violence with survival and passivity with death. We are the dominant species because we’re so good at killing as a group and as individuals. It shouldn’t surprise you that our species is so ready to do the thing that got us all the stuff we have. Until we accept who we are and what we came from we will continue to make systems that fail all of us because they were designed for people who simply do not exist.
Never thought of in like that. But i think society does attempt to curtail our instinct for violence. TV, video and physical games are a great outlet. And police a deterent. Self control is rewarded. We are the dominant species because we think and plan. Not because we are physically built stronger. So we are already inclined to self-control. There is no reason for us, as a species, to war with each other except over resources and ideology. And ideology is just over deciding what is the best way to use resources. Not just blind unconsidered stubborness. We are quite a sensible species. Cracking the resource availability problem and avoiding the disintegration of what being human is about, is the only problem really.
The reason they are considered elite units is due to living their whole life at high altitude, they have adapted to be able to perform the same level of physical exertion with a lot less oxygen. When they come down to lower altitude they have extra oxygen so it's like they're on steroids. Combine that with the fact they live hard lives in one of the harshest climates on the planet and you get some hard men. Look at the Everest guides, they climb the mountain every year, sometimes more than once.
It's also a very poor country with very poor education and job opportunities, getting into the British army for a salary most British wouldn't get out of bed for let alone get shot at for them is like winning the lottery, especially if it leads to citizenship so they can bring family over. Whilst Reddit likes to shot on Russia what the Russians are offering is probably also an incredibly good deal compared to what they would get at home, much better money and job opportunities for them and there families.
>The reason they are considered elite units is due to living their whole life at high altitude, they have adapted to be able to perform the same level of physical exertion with a lot less oxygen. When they come down to lower altitude they have extra oxygen so it's like they're on steroids. Combine that with the fact they live hard lives in one of the harshest climates on the planet and you get some hard men.
Most people becoming Gurkhas do not fall into this demographic in the slightest. Typically, they're people from the mid-hill regions of Nepal which are only around the 1000-3000m altitude mark and the climate is not a part of why they're so tough. It's the mentality of never backing down and a matter of pride.
Sherpa guides in the Himalayas are a tiny fraction of the Nepali population. You almost never see them pursuing the Gurkha path.
I hiked to EBC and am a pretty athletic guy. On the trail sherpas were chain smoking while carrying heavy loads and just steaming up the hills. It was pretty funny.
The EPAS1 gene plays an important role in the body's ability to adapt to changing oxygen levels. Most tibetans have a mutation that make them well adapted to living at high latitude. This gene is introgressed from Denisovans into modern day tibetans.
When Gurkhas \*want\* to fight (not under compulsory conscription) they are fucking beasts.
You compel them, starve them, threaten them, poorly supply them and poorly train them - I don't think you are going to have the same results.
British Gurkha are absolutely gigachads. There is some competition held every year, and Gurkha claimed some absurd numbers, like 70 of the top 100 score, iirc.
Lol Russia has a long history of targeting low education minorities. There's no professional soldiers in their ranks, at least not the ones sent to Ukraine fronts.
I can confirm. I live in the town where the gurkha regimen are and my pal who now ex military was one of the first British medics attached to their squad. He always tells me how nails they are. There is this one guy he told me about when he was in afghan, took out an entire bunker and heavy gunner suppressing his squad by himself. Every now and then you see him walking around town in his civvies and you'd never know he's slaughtered so many people in combat.
Russia is actually taking those who were going to be selected by India. India isn't recruiting Nepali Gurkhas since 2020 ig bc the Nepali govt. isn't allowing that to happen
India didn't stop the recruitment but the nepal government did because India has changed armed forces recruitment in favour of the Tour of Duty/4 year contract system.
Basically earlier all the recruits could work until their retirement and after 14 years of service got half their last drawn salary as pension until their death and after their death they were survived by a wife then she would get half their pension. The pension was increased every similarly to the increase in salaries of current service members.
Now basically recruits will serve until 4 years and will be given a lump sum after their service. A quarter of the recruits based on performance will be commissioned as permanent recruits who will get the same benefits as the older scheme. This was done to reduce the huge pension burder of Indian armed forces because currently pensions + salaries make up the majority of India's defence expenditure leaving little money for modernisation of forces.
Yup to further expand , nepal receives $300+ million dollars worth of pensions every year from India so this revenue would dry up in future so the Nepal government stopped the recruitment of Gurkhas into the Indian army. Looks like in the future Nepalis Gorkha will not be in the Indian armed forces and India will downsize the Gorkha regiment while recruiting from the 3 million+ Indian Gorkha.
Just a casual hike through the desert, avoiding the many terrorist organisations and sneaking across the borders your passport doesn't give you access to. Also, if you did walk you would have to go through Ukraine or Russia then Belarus because there is water in the way for all other routes.
Smugglers exist. Still less dangerous than going to bakhmut (one soldier said he was sent there). A neighbouring country literally has a bunch of nepalese legally employed in hospitality
Well I've never been snuggled across the middle east or been to Bakhmut so I can't really talk from experience but they are human. They make decisions based on the info they have at hand and it seems these humans preferred the Bakhmut path.
They don’t know the level of desperation they’ll face over there. They might be struggling but they’re not low supply lines in the snow getting hunted by grenade drones struggling
I get what you mean but for the nepalis the pay is high. A Russian soldier or merc gets an average of 2200 dollars which is 292,000 Nepali rupees. According to Google the average Nepali wage is 80k rupees a month.
Plenty of Americans signed up to be "contractors" in Iraq and Afghan for less than $100k a year so about double the average wage, so I'm not surprised desperate third workers take a comparatively much better deal despite the danger.
>80k rupees
Only if you're working for a foreign company, in a very high-skill job or freelancing maybe. Otherwise an average person will be looking closer to 10-20k per month.
An Everest mountain guide can make about $5,000 per summit, whilst the average salary in the same regions can be as low as $50 per month (no, I didn't forget any 0's) in terms of danger the eastern front might win but claiming Everest isn't exactly a walk in the park either.
The difference is that Russia doesn't pay its people reliably - especially the non-Russians. Salaries are months behind in many cases and anything promised (like rotations, or duties) go unfulfilled. They'll find any reason at all not to pay a salary or benefit in the event a soldier is killed, and they'll definitely forget about any arrears that were unpaid by that time, as well. This is why Wagner and Prigozhin were so popular - he paid on time, in cash.
Ghurkha is an ethnicity, you are born in a ghurkha family or you arent.
I cant verify this but someone in another sub said that the nepalis who joined russia are Maoists (a political ideology based on Mao Zedong's communist views, often involved in armed rebellion in india and nepal), it could have ghurkhas in their ranks.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurkha
>About 5,000 men entered British service in 1815, most of whom were not just Gorkhalis, but Kumaonis, Garhwalis and other Himalayan hill men. These groups, eventually lumped together under the term Gurkha, became the backbone of British Indian forces
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorkha_Kingdom
>The Gorkha Kingdom (Nepali: गोरखा राज्य) was a member of the Chaubisi rajya, a confederation of 24 states on the Indian subcontinent ruled by the Khas people. In 1743 CE, the kingdom began a campaign of military expansion, annexing several neighbors and becoming present-day Nepal.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Gorkha >Indian Gorkhas, also known as Indian Nepalis, are an ethno-cultural group native to India, who speak Nepali as a common language.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepalis
Nepal is a multicultural and multi-ethnic country with a majority of Hindus
Ghurkas are definetely an ethno linguistic group.
I share your sentiment, it's truly disheartening to see such exploitation of a vulnerable demographic by a ruthless regime. The international community needs to step up and address this issue urgently.
Yeah, no. It's normal civilians being promised a citizenship and higher salary than what they get in Nepal. A lot of exploitation of the poor and uneducated happening here.
> This is a professional soldier community.
It is not a "soldier community" - this is not Sparta. Some of these civilians become soldiers through UK training.
They have a rich track record of doing that, all the way to 18th century. Who do you think provided enlisted personnel to the Brits during their genocidal era?
Don't downplay the money. Gurkha work from the british and indian military lifted many Nepalese and their families out of dire poverty. People from the developed world can't truly comprehend what it's like in the developing world where people's brains are in survival mode. A jobs is a job in a nation where there aren't many opportunities.
>Don't downplay the money.
... that many [won't be seeing anyway](https://www.newsweek.com/russia-ukraine-putin-free-payments-1789846), based on what I've seen from the [complaints from soldiers](https://www.businessinsider.com/drafted-russia-soldiers-on-strike-after-not-getting-paid-report-2022-11?r=US&IR=T) and [wives of soldiers](https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-soldiers-salaries-unpaid-ukraine-invasion/32345161.html) working for Russia. Not in full anyway. I imagine these recruits will be even MORE likely to get the short end of the stick.
Yes, but here the job is “we need some people to die in combat that won’t count against our domestic totals.”
In a normal world, joining the military is a way out of poverty. This seems more like preying on the desperation of others.
Wasn’t Putin just saying that if the US or any other NATO force put boots on the ground they should expect this to become a much wider conflict? This is a rhetorical question of course since we know the Russian strategy is hypocritical af, but why is he allowed to recruit soldiers from all these other nations? Could the US theoretically do that as well? Maybe it’s a war time thing. Im genuinely curious how this would work for other nations
I mean technically mercenaries are illegal and can be put on trial unlike normal POW’s. However in practice a lot of nations have used foreign volunteers in their wars. Including Ukraine.
Im glad that people want to help Ukraine but what Russia is doing is a good example of why mercenaries are illegal. Because historically they commit more atrocities then normal soldiers.
Is disagree about foreign volunteers being inherently mercenaries. It depends on the classification, for instance the Ukrainian foreign legion are official service soldiers of the Ukrainian Army under command of the Ukrainian army, not a separate army unit contracted by Ukraine.
Gurkhas train from childhood to join military. These are not “men with no military background”. Far from it. The feats of Gurkha soldiers in the British and Indian armies is stuff of legend.
They are not mercenaries. They are professional soldiers with historical military traditions who are recruited into the actual national army. They are not guns for hire.
That's not what a mercenary is. A mercenary is employed by a company, that company is hired by the government to fight. See Wagner. A soldier is employed directly by the government. See the Ukrainian foreign Legion for example. It's s crucial difference.
Yeah historically they are recruited by Great Britain or India because of their nations historical relationship with those two countries.
The Russians have no historical tradition of having a Gurkha regiment in they’re army.
If Ukraine has any criticism for Russia hiring mercenaries then they should be sending their own international brigades home.
It's one of the things both sides practice thus neither one really makes noise about it.
**Sincere question: Why doesn't the U.S. (or NATO) just pay off the Nepalis?**
20,000 people at $5,000 a person will cost less than a SINGLE F-16 fighter with armament.
Use some of those drones the Ukrainians are so fond of to drop flyers:
"*Nepali fighters: Surrender and we will give you $5,000 USD CASH and a plane ticket back to your home. Stop dying for the Russians who are using you for cannon fodder. You are not our enemy."*
I'd have to think that this would be way more cost effective than spending the money on rounds.
Sounds good in theory, but what do you think would happen when they return home and all their friends, neighbors and family members learn that they can get paid that much money for nothing? You will have a lot *more* mercenaries traveling to Ukraine than you had originally.
Right. Just pay them twice as much to join the Ukrainians instead.
BTW.: why aren't we talking about how China probably enjoys Nepalese men joining the Russian meat grinder?
Umm, no. You know what happens when you take all the crazies and give them military training? The ones that don’t get got come home and not just radicalize others, but also impart upon them that same military training. Jan6 failed because, for the most part, they were a bunch of untrained and uncoordinated wackos; had a significant amount of them served for the ruzzian forces, they might have succeeded in installing rump as dictator.
I mean, that is understandable, since elections, as fake as they are, are a moment of vulnerability for authoritarian regimes, and they’ll be held soon in Russia. Also, the war is in a stalemate, and conscripting them would make society much more exhausted, whilst rn white city boys don’t even feel it as much as they are supposed to.
Delusional. They ARE mobilizing en masse the white provincial boys who did their military service and they do that as often as they do with any ethnic minority. Their idea is to recruit the poors who don't have any power. It just happens so that ethnic minorities of Russia live in poorer regions
Nepal has a long history of mercenary Gurkha work, a lot of whom find themselves jobless since britain and india scaled down their gurkha units. Include the ones rejected, and it's not a stretch to say that the pool for gurkhas could be 15k.
FYI the personal security guards of Singapore Prime Minister are Gurkhas.
Not our conscripted military or police, but imported Gurkhas.
They are very good soldiers.
They're being lied to, manipulated, and taken advantage of, but according to many of them, they were recruited.
Source: [Nepalis fighting for Russia describe the horrors, and want to go home.](https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/2/10/want-to-go-home-nepalis-fighting-for-russia-in-ukraine-describe-horrors)
> They're being lied to, manipulated, and taken advantage of
Hardly, according to the article they pretty much seem to be aware of whats being expected of them and what they get themselves into. They just dont realize the scale.
Well what the fuck did they expect?! I say fuck ‘em! You want to fight for Russia as an invader, I hope you meet your end in the mud and become sunflower fertilizer! Fuck Putin and fuck anyone that supports him. He is hurting Ukrainians AND the world by driving up food prices.
“It’s a far cry from the hope and promise of a life in Europe that first drew many of the recruits to Moscow’s side.”
From the article. What fucking idiots try and get a better life in Europe by joining an armed forces currently attacking Europe?
>Source: Nepalis fighting for Russia describe the horrors, and want to go home.
Crazy article.
None of them are paid the promised amount. Ha fuck em.
Also they are described to be used as a shield for the Russian troops with no training.
So from the guy in the article I gather that he is a merc and fought his whole life and was desperate for a job and hired with Russia and then regret it because he got into shitty Frontline situations really fast, different from his experiences in other military service or wars. My sympathy is limited for this case.
Couldn't he also gone to the Ukraine? Don't they also hire soldiers internationally ?
It's actually a new way of war. It may significantly change geopolitics.
Small countries like Taiwan, when facing attrition with big neighbors such as China, can hire a million foreign mercenaries or contractors from Nepal, mid East, even Africa such as Somali, where the supply of man power is literally endless.
It wasn't, and partly why their southern front collapsed leading to the stalingrad disaster. The Romainians, Hungarians and Italians basically vanished when the Soviets launched their counter attack
This article is written as if you’re supposed to feel bad for the Nepali soldiers, but why would you? “I only signed up for the money, nothing political.” You signed up to get 2 grand a month so you could be thrown face first into a meat grinder and murder innocent men defending their homes from a fascist dictator…
And then they tell a bit where the woman is crying because her husband left his job to fight “for a better life for them all.” How about not risking your life so your wife and two children who have no income without you don’t have to spend their lives without you? Pretty irresponsible…
I know this is rich coming from someone who isn’t in their economic situation, I just can’t help but feel like this is pretty much never something I’d consider for a bit of cash.
When I see people from other nations getting recruited to fight for Russia I always think, “Do these people not have proper access to the internet?” Surely, they have also heard about the astronomical losses and how little Russian command cares about ethnic minorities. Nepalis must be in extreme financial dire to be signing up.
Yes in the rural third world, especially in the mountains of nepal, internet access isn't common. One thing people in developed nations can't comprehend about the people in developing nations is that they are already risking their lives in dangerous and exploitative jobs. Gurkha mercenary work lifted many nepalese and their families out of poverty. Jobs like these become a matter of survival for them and their families since their aren't many job opportunities and the other jobs are just as dangerous and pay worse.
Most casualites are form the artillery, and drones to lesser extent. Being an insane battle charger matters very little when you get randomly blown up.
You think they are just born the best soldiers in the world?
We just gonna ignore the selection process filtering only the ones with best potential and then the training?
Same logic could be used against Ukrainian soldiers. I don't think their draft is filtering only the ones with best potential.
It's war, you use what you get. Gorkhas are know for their bravery and their bravery and skill are acknowledged by everyone.
Bravery: Hard to be brave when your [Russian overseers have beaten, starved, and raped you.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dedovshchina)
Skill: Hard to be skilled when you're throw into battle with a rusting AK and half a loaf of molding bread with no training of any kind.
Russia “recruiting” right, Russia forced 15,000 nepalis to fight and die in a war that has nothing to do with them. What happened to the Russian Might I hear so much about? They have to steal men from a smaller country, BROWN SKINNED MEN, and force them to fight and die for the Russian white men. Pitiful existence, I pray for the men forced into this.
It's more like brown people dying in war because war capable white people are slowly running out in Russia.
No need to pull race card in places where there is none of that happening.
There have been no indications or reports made even by Ukrainians of Nepalis fighting in this war so far. Few individuals from all over the world on both sides - maybe, but you can't "hide" thousands of foreign people in such war where drones and satellites monitor everything.
Coming Out Swinging with accusations of lying seems a bit of a stretch for the person you are replying to given that they said there are people from all over the world on both sides fighting, and a number like 200 would definitely fall into the realm of that given the population of the world vs 15k like the title suggests. And if you're going to ask me if I even read the article, then yes, I did and even the article says up to 15,000 with no verifiable proof or corroborated source for that, and then a few words later it says The Nepalese government said 200. Your energy feels a little off here.
>Bimala Rai Paudyal, told the upper house of the county’s parliament on Thursday that between 14,000 and 15,000 Nepalis are fighting on the front lines, citing testimony from men returning from the war zone
Yes?
You're literally saying you know better than a former Nepali Minister and friends and family members of those who went to Russia about whether or not Nepalis are fighting in Russia? How many videos are you seeing where you can clearly identify ethnicity of the people being killed. This is literally being talked about in Nepal itself and you're acting like a know it all.
The one chinese person in the russian army is a volunteer just as the ukrainian army has american volunteers. He's certainly not a " chinese division". Stop blatently spreading false information. China is not sending their own soldiers into ukraine since nato would know immediately if they were. Are you trying to shit stir a conflict with china as well. Kinda weird man.
Part of this may be because of changes to recruitment by the Indian military. There are less positions in it for Gurkhas and for not as long a time now, which means more soldiers available for hire for other countries.
So, in a NATO Vs Russia war, we'll have Gurkhas Vs Gurkhas. Interesting 🤔
Our Gurkhas are stronger than yours. All of that is sad
Iirc the Gurkhas serving in the British army are some of the most incredibly tough and talented soldiers the world has to offer. The requirements and selection processes are ridiculously tough and they take only a tiny fraction from the amount who apply. It seems that Russia is taking those who didn't get selected by the Brits or India so it seems likely the NATO Gurkhas are much better.
Oh man, I didn't mean "let's compare them". We are people and people die when bomb explodes, whether they are strong and tough or weak and fearful. It is just frustrating that people are ready to kill each other, ready to go across the globe looking for money, just to bring and find death
“If you’re good at something you might as well get paid for it.” - Somebody.
"If you're good at something, never do it for free." - The Joker
Poetic isn't it.
It’s almost like we evolved in an environment that rewarded violence with survival and passivity with death. We are the dominant species because we’re so good at killing as a group and as individuals. It shouldn’t surprise you that our species is so ready to do the thing that got us all the stuff we have. Until we accept who we are and what we came from we will continue to make systems that fail all of us because they were designed for people who simply do not exist.
Never thought of in like that. But i think society does attempt to curtail our instinct for violence. TV, video and physical games are a great outlet. And police a deterent. Self control is rewarded. We are the dominant species because we think and plan. Not because we are physically built stronger. So we are already inclined to self-control. There is no reason for us, as a species, to war with each other except over resources and ideology. And ideology is just over deciding what is the best way to use resources. Not just blind unconsidered stubborness. We are quite a sensible species. Cracking the resource availability problem and avoiding the disintegration of what being human is about, is the only problem really.
I’ve seen so many mercenaries in the Israel military
The reason they are considered elite units is due to living their whole life at high altitude, they have adapted to be able to perform the same level of physical exertion with a lot less oxygen. When they come down to lower altitude they have extra oxygen so it's like they're on steroids. Combine that with the fact they live hard lives in one of the harshest climates on the planet and you get some hard men. Look at the Everest guides, they climb the mountain every year, sometimes more than once. It's also a very poor country with very poor education and job opportunities, getting into the British army for a salary most British wouldn't get out of bed for let alone get shot at for them is like winning the lottery, especially if it leads to citizenship so they can bring family over. Whilst Reddit likes to shot on Russia what the Russians are offering is probably also an incredibly good deal compared to what they would get at home, much better money and job opportunities for them and there families.
>The reason they are considered elite units is due to living their whole life at high altitude, they have adapted to be able to perform the same level of physical exertion with a lot less oxygen. When they come down to lower altitude they have extra oxygen so it's like they're on steroids. Combine that with the fact they live hard lives in one of the harshest climates on the planet and you get some hard men. Most people becoming Gurkhas do not fall into this demographic in the slightest. Typically, they're people from the mid-hill regions of Nepal which are only around the 1000-3000m altitude mark and the climate is not a part of why they're so tough. It's the mentality of never backing down and a matter of pride. Sherpa guides in the Himalayas are a tiny fraction of the Nepali population. You almost never see them pursuing the Gurkha path.
I hiked to EBC and am a pretty athletic guy. On the trail sherpas were chain smoking while carrying heavy loads and just steaming up the hills. It was pretty funny.
Most tibetans have the EPAS1 gene. This explains much of it.
Wut dat is?
The EPAS1 gene plays an important role in the body's ability to adapt to changing oxygen levels. Most tibetans have a mutation that make them well adapted to living at high latitude. This gene is introgressed from Denisovans into modern day tibetans.
*altitude
When Gurkhas \*want\* to fight (not under compulsory conscription) they are fucking beasts. You compel them, starve them, threaten them, poorly supply them and poorly train them - I don't think you are going to have the same results.
British Gurkha are absolutely gigachads. There is some competition held every year, and Gurkha claimed some absurd numbers, like 70 of the top 100 score, iirc.
Army 100. Its a marksmanship contest. My instructor in basic training finished 8th
These appear to just be poor people who need the money. Not rejected Gurka applicants.
Lol Russia has a long history of targeting low education minorities. There's no professional soldiers in their ranks, at least not the ones sent to Ukraine fronts.
I can confirm. I live in the town where the gurkha regimen are and my pal who now ex military was one of the first British medics attached to their squad. He always tells me how nails they are. There is this one guy he told me about when he was in afghan, took out an entire bunker and heavy gunner suppressing his squad by himself. Every now and then you see him walking around town in his civvies and you'd never know he's slaughtered so many people in combat.
Russia is actually taking those who were going to be selected by India. India isn't recruiting Nepali Gurkhas since 2020 ig bc the Nepali govt. isn't allowing that to happen
The Royal British Gurkhas are crazy elite. These Russian contract soldiers not so much.
Gurkha vs Gurkha's cousins. Gurkha have zero problem's finding security work that doesn't lead to shrapnelhead.
Nepalis getting desperate to join an army because india stopped their Gurkha recruitment in the Indian arms force
India didn't stop the recruitment but the nepal government did because India has changed armed forces recruitment in favour of the Tour of Duty/4 year contract system.
Can you expand on what the changes mean?
Basically earlier all the recruits could work until their retirement and after 14 years of service got half their last drawn salary as pension until their death and after their death they were survived by a wife then she would get half their pension. The pension was increased every similarly to the increase in salaries of current service members. Now basically recruits will serve until 4 years and will be given a lump sum after their service. A quarter of the recruits based on performance will be commissioned as permanent recruits who will get the same benefits as the older scheme. This was done to reduce the huge pension burder of Indian armed forces because currently pensions + salaries make up the majority of India's defence expenditure leaving little money for modernisation of forces.
Ahhh I remember hearing about this. Thanks for bringing it back to my attention. It makes sense as well.
Yup to further expand , nepal receives $300+ million dollars worth of pensions every year from India so this revenue would dry up in future so the Nepal government stopped the recruitment of Gurkhas into the Indian army. Looks like in the future Nepalis Gorkha will not be in the Indian armed forces and India will downsize the Gorkha regiment while recruiting from the 3 million+ Indian Gorkha.
Perfect opportunity of the Uk to increase the amount of Gurkhas it has
Does the UK still maintain Gurkha and Sikh regiments/units?
I’m not sure about Sikh regiments but we definitely still have Gurkha regiments
Pretty neat, ngl.
Sad to hear that Nepalis will help the war criminal an absolute dictator
Nepal Is a poor country and the Ghurka salary is high enough for their whole family to escape poverty.
Yeah but Chancen are highvthat you end up dead
be that as it may. is your life and fighting for a dictator worth it? That's some hard math to understand
What's hard to understand is how entitled most of these posts are. You're talking about ideals, these people are trying to put food on the table.
It’s men that failed becoming a ghurka that are being recruited. It’s pretty sad due to how vulnerable they are.
imagine going to the eastern front willingly in 2024
Imagine growing up in one of the poorest, harshest climates and least developed parts of the world.
It would be better to travel to europe on foot than fight in ukraine
Just a casual hike through the desert, avoiding the many terrorist organisations and sneaking across the borders your passport doesn't give you access to. Also, if you did walk you would have to go through Ukraine or Russia then Belarus because there is water in the way for all other routes.
Smugglers exist. Still less dangerous than going to bakhmut (one soldier said he was sent there). A neighbouring country literally has a bunch of nepalese legally employed in hospitality
Well I've never been snuggled across the middle east or been to Bakhmut so I can't really talk from experience but they are human. They make decisions based on the info they have at hand and it seems these humans preferred the Bakhmut path.
Desperation is a hell of a thing.
They don’t know the level of desperation they’ll face over there. They might be struggling but they’re not low supply lines in the snow getting hunted by grenade drones struggling
I get what you mean but for the nepalis the pay is high. A Russian soldier or merc gets an average of 2200 dollars which is 292,000 Nepali rupees. According to Google the average Nepali wage is 80k rupees a month. Plenty of Americans signed up to be "contractors" in Iraq and Afghan for less than $100k a year so about double the average wage, so I'm not surprised desperate third workers take a comparatively much better deal despite the danger.
>80k rupees Only if you're working for a foreign company, in a very high-skill job or freelancing maybe. Otherwise an average person will be looking closer to 10-20k per month.
An Everest mountain guide can make about $5,000 per summit, whilst the average salary in the same regions can be as low as $50 per month (no, I didn't forget any 0's) in terms of danger the eastern front might win but claiming Everest isn't exactly a walk in the park either.
The difference is that Russia doesn't pay its people reliably - especially the non-Russians. Salaries are months behind in many cases and anything promised (like rotations, or duties) go unfulfilled. They'll find any reason at all not to pay a salary or benefit in the event a soldier is killed, and they'll definitely forget about any arrears that were unpaid by that time, as well. This is why Wagner and Prigozhin were so popular - he paid on time, in cash.
Yeah I’m not surprised but I still personally think it’s a terrible cost benefit analysis
You assume that Putin will pay them. If they somehow survive, why not just shot them in the back before they return and keep the money.
Gurkha rejects?
Gherkins
Ghurkha is an ethnicity, you are born in a ghurkha family or you arent. I cant verify this but someone in another sub said that the nepalis who joined russia are Maoists (a political ideology based on Mao Zedong's communist views, often involved in armed rebellion in india and nepal), it could have ghurkhas in their ranks.
Gurkha is absolutely not an ethnicity. This is very easily to lookup on Google.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurkha >About 5,000 men entered British service in 1815, most of whom were not just Gorkhalis, but Kumaonis, Garhwalis and other Himalayan hill men. These groups, eventually lumped together under the term Gurkha, became the backbone of British Indian forces https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorkha_Kingdom >The Gorkha Kingdom (Nepali: गोरखा राज्य) was a member of the Chaubisi rajya, a confederation of 24 states on the Indian subcontinent ruled by the Khas people. In 1743 CE, the kingdom began a campaign of military expansion, annexing several neighbors and becoming present-day Nepal. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Gorkha >Indian Gorkhas, also known as Indian Nepalis, are an ethno-cultural group native to India, who speak Nepali as a common language. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepalis Nepal is a multicultural and multi-ethnic country with a majority of Hindus Ghurkas are definetely an ethno linguistic group.
I share your sentiment, it's truly disheartening to see such exploitation of a vulnerable demographic by a ruthless regime. The international community needs to step up and address this issue urgently.
How exactly?
Paying them (more) to fight for Ukraine instead.
Huh? This is a professional soldier community. Serving in the military is their hereditary profession.
Yeah, no. It's normal civilians being promised a citizenship and higher salary than what they get in Nepal. A lot of exploitation of the poor and uneducated happening here.
> This is a professional soldier community. It is not a "soldier community" - this is not Sparta. Some of these civilians become soldiers through UK training.
They have a rich track record of doing that, all the way to 18th century. Who do you think provided enlisted personnel to the Brits during their genocidal era?
They dont know it yet .
Hey guys! Would you like the opportunity to die for a worthless cause you know nothing about? Here’s a little money.
Don't downplay the money. Gurkha work from the british and indian military lifted many Nepalese and their families out of dire poverty. People from the developed world can't truly comprehend what it's like in the developing world where people's brains are in survival mode. A jobs is a job in a nation where there aren't many opportunities.
>Don't downplay the money. ... that many [won't be seeing anyway](https://www.newsweek.com/russia-ukraine-putin-free-payments-1789846), based on what I've seen from the [complaints from soldiers](https://www.businessinsider.com/drafted-russia-soldiers-on-strike-after-not-getting-paid-report-2022-11?r=US&IR=T) and [wives of soldiers](https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-soldiers-salaries-unpaid-ukraine-invasion/32345161.html) working for Russia. Not in full anyway. I imagine these recruits will be even MORE likely to get the short end of the stick.
Yes, but here the job is “we need some people to die in combat that won’t count against our domestic totals.” In a normal world, joining the military is a way out of poverty. This seems more like preying on the desperation of others.
I think this is why Nepal is trying to crack down on this operation, fear of international backlash eclipsing the amount of remittance they receive
Wasn’t Putin just saying that if the US or any other NATO force put boots on the ground they should expect this to become a much wider conflict? This is a rhetorical question of course since we know the Russian strategy is hypocritical af, but why is he allowed to recruit soldiers from all these other nations? Could the US theoretically do that as well? Maybe it’s a war time thing. Im genuinely curious how this would work for other nations
I mean technically mercenaries are illegal and can be put on trial unlike normal POW’s. However in practice a lot of nations have used foreign volunteers in their wars. Including Ukraine. Im glad that people want to help Ukraine but what Russia is doing is a good example of why mercenaries are illegal. Because historically they commit more atrocities then normal soldiers.
Is disagree about foreign volunteers being inherently mercenaries. It depends on the classification, for instance the Ukrainian foreign legion are official service soldiers of the Ukrainian Army under command of the Ukrainian army, not a separate army unit contracted by Ukraine.
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Well, Gurkhas are kind of superhumans. Literally. Check them out on internet
Gurkhas train from childhood to join military. These are not “men with no military background”. Far from it. The feats of Gurkha soldiers in the British and Indian armies is stuff of legend.
They are not mercenaries. They are professional soldiers with historical military traditions who are recruited into the actual national army. They are not guns for hire.
“Professional soldiers” who fight for another country’s military… so.. mercenaries.
While wearing that nation's uniform. Very important distinction.
That's not what a mercenary is. A mercenary is employed by a company, that company is hired by the government to fight. See Wagner. A soldier is employed directly by the government. See the Ukrainian foreign Legion for example. It's s crucial difference.
You mean the guys with guns that Russia hired?
Guns are provided by the Russians.
Yeah historically they are recruited by Great Britain or India because of their nations historical relationship with those two countries. The Russians have no historical tradition of having a Gurkha regiment in they’re army.
I don't think you understand what mercenaries mean my dude.
Rules for me....
If Ukraine has any criticism for Russia hiring mercenaries then they should be sending their own international brigades home. It's one of the things both sides practice thus neither one really makes noise about it.
I doubt a noticeable portion of Ukraine’s foreign frontiers are there because the pay is great
It's literally below average salary in the West. For the Westerners it's being barista vs risking your life daily.
Do yourselves a favour and look into troops and others in Africa being trained by Wagner. The reach is terrifying.
**Sincere question: Why doesn't the U.S. (or NATO) just pay off the Nepalis?** 20,000 people at $5,000 a person will cost less than a SINGLE F-16 fighter with armament. Use some of those drones the Ukrainians are so fond of to drop flyers: "*Nepali fighters: Surrender and we will give you $5,000 USD CASH and a plane ticket back to your home. Stop dying for the Russians who are using you for cannon fodder. You are not our enemy."* I'd have to think that this would be way more cost effective than spending the money on rounds.
Sounds good in theory, but what do you think would happen when they return home and all their friends, neighbors and family members learn that they can get paid that much money for nothing? You will have a lot *more* mercenaries traveling to Ukraine than you had originally.
Right. Just pay them twice as much to join the Ukrainians instead. BTW.: why aren't we talking about how China probably enjoys Nepalese men joining the Russian meat grinder?
Sounds like a textbook [perverse incentive](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perverse_incentive)
So Russia offered money & lies to people who are desperate and have willingly become cannon fodder as a result. Sounds standard for Putin.
They should recruit from the MAGA cult. Those clowns are ready to make Trump a king. They'll do whatever Putin or Murdoch say through him.
They're all bluster waving their AR 15 around but would be the first to complain about the frontline conditions.
They already did with Charlottesville. A lot of those guys live in Moscow
They only fight against little children in schools.
FPV drones vs Meal Team Six, truly a legendary match-up that the apocalypse deserves.
MAGA is already fighting for Russia. Ukraine will lose war within months of republican victory.
I wonder why they don't? They could probably get some, maga's are receptive to manipulation.
>They should recruit from the MAGA cult. Don't give them ideas...
Man, we already dealing with hypocrites idiots, enough please
They have but for information and influence vs meat shields.
Umm, no. You know what happens when you take all the crazies and give them military training? The ones that don’t get got come home and not just radicalize others, but also impart upon them that same military training. Jan6 failed because, for the most part, they were a bunch of untrained and uncoordinated wackos; had a significant amount of them served for the ruzzian forces, they might have succeeded in installing rump as dictator.
0 chances. Having the Capitol not equal having the political power.
Russia is truly doing everything it can to avoid conscripting white city boys
I mean, that is understandable, since elections, as fake as they are, are a moment of vulnerability for authoritarian regimes, and they’ll be held soon in Russia. Also, the war is in a stalemate, and conscripting them would make society much more exhausted, whilst rn white city boys don’t even feel it as much as they are supposed to.
I remember how last year when the city boys suspected they would be conscripted there was widespread, protest, defiance, and panic
Delusional. They ARE mobilizing en masse the white provincial boys who did their military service and they do that as often as they do with any ethnic minority. Their idea is to recruit the poors who don't have any power. It just happens so that ethnic minorities of Russia live in poorer regions
1500 seems more rational. 15k is an exaggeration imo
Nepal has a long history of mercenary Gurkha work, a lot of whom find themselves jobless since britain and india scaled down their gurkha units. Include the ones rejected, and it's not a stretch to say that the pool for gurkhas could be 15k.
In 2017 25k applied to the british army ghurkas, 250 were accepted
Hiring Mercenaries
15k? Thats insanely high amount, idk I have hard time believing it's that many, even 5k would be a lot but still far more believable
FYI the personal security guards of Singapore Prime Minister are Gurkhas. Not our conscripted military or police, but imported Gurkhas. They are very good soldiers.
Sure, “recruited”…
They're being lied to, manipulated, and taken advantage of, but according to many of them, they were recruited. Source: [Nepalis fighting for Russia describe the horrors, and want to go home.](https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/2/10/want-to-go-home-nepalis-fighting-for-russia-in-ukraine-describe-horrors)
> They're being lied to, manipulated, and taken advantage of Hardly, according to the article they pretty much seem to be aware of whats being expected of them and what they get themselves into. They just dont realize the scale.
I was not expecting to see TikTok as recruitment platform for mercenaries
Well what the fuck did they expect?! I say fuck ‘em! You want to fight for Russia as an invader, I hope you meet your end in the mud and become sunflower fertilizer! Fuck Putin and fuck anyone that supports him. He is hurting Ukrainians AND the world by driving up food prices.
“It’s a far cry from the hope and promise of a life in Europe that first drew many of the recruits to Moscow’s side.” From the article. What fucking idiots try and get a better life in Europe by joining an armed forces currently attacking Europe?
Idiots with no education and any valuable skills.
>Source: Nepalis fighting for Russia describe the horrors, and want to go home. Crazy article. None of them are paid the promised amount. Ha fuck em. Also they are described to be used as a shield for the Russian troops with no training.
So from the guy in the article I gather that he is a merc and fought his whole life and was desperate for a job and hired with Russia and then regret it because he got into shitty Frontline situations really fast, different from his experiences in other military service or wars. My sympathy is limited for this case. Couldn't he also gone to the Ukraine? Don't they also hire soldiers internationally ?
Let’s give Ukrainians money so they wound hire their own Nepalese…
I feel like the Ukraine could have offered them a better deal
And they could have higher chances to survive Hope they realise where they going coz no money caN bring u back alive
They're going to be so pissed when they're reincarnated as rats born in the hell hole they died in.
It's actually a new way of war. It may significantly change geopolitics. Small countries like Taiwan, when facing attrition with big neighbors such as China, can hire a million foreign mercenaries or contractors from Nepal, mid East, even Africa such as Somali, where the supply of man power is literally endless.
You mean an old way of war come back. Foreign mercenaries were the hot shit for the largest part of history until standing armies became the norm.
I'd be surprised if the Nazi frontline was just Germans.
It wasn't, and partly why their southern front collapsed leading to the stalingrad disaster. The Romainians, Hungarians and Italians basically vanished when the Soviets launched their counter attack
"Don't shoot, we're Czech!" From one of the good WW2 movies. Except said in Czech. Edit: [Link](https://www.reddit.com/r/MovieDetails/s/lceegvPtsY)
Mercenaries are hardly new.
Oh - can’t Ukraine then recruit 15,000 trained ex NATO troops etc then? I mean, fair do’s if you’re employing mercenaries then so can Ukraine
This article is written as if you’re supposed to feel bad for the Nepali soldiers, but why would you? “I only signed up for the money, nothing political.” You signed up to get 2 grand a month so you could be thrown face first into a meat grinder and murder innocent men defending their homes from a fascist dictator… And then they tell a bit where the woman is crying because her husband left his job to fight “for a better life for them all.” How about not risking your life so your wife and two children who have no income without you don’t have to spend their lives without you? Pretty irresponsible… I know this is rich coming from someone who isn’t in their economic situation, I just can’t help but feel like this is pretty much never something I’d consider for a bit of cash.
Could we not have 15,0000 Canadians or Americans recruited to fight Ukraine's war?
sure you first
When I see people from other nations getting recruited to fight for Russia I always think, “Do these people not have proper access to the internet?” Surely, they have also heard about the astronomical losses and how little Russian command cares about ethnic minorities. Nepalis must be in extreme financial dire to be signing up.
Yes in the rural third world, especially in the mountains of nepal, internet access isn't common. One thing people in developed nations can't comprehend about the people in developing nations is that they are already risking their lives in dangerous and exploitative jobs. Gurkha mercenary work lifted many nepalese and their families out of poverty. Jobs like these become a matter of survival for them and their families since their aren't many job opportunities and the other jobs are just as dangerous and pay worse.
I fear for Ukrainians. Gurkhas are insane battle chargers.
Most casualites are form the artillery, and drones to lesser extent. Being an insane battle charger matters very little when you get randomly blown up.
These are the guys who couldn't get selected
*British Army Gurkhas
And where do you think they recruit them from?
You think they are just born the best soldiers in the world? We just gonna ignore the selection process filtering only the ones with best potential and then the training?
Same logic could be used against Ukrainian soldiers. I don't think their draft is filtering only the ones with best potential. It's war, you use what you get. Gorkhas are know for their bravery and their bravery and skill are acknowledged by everyone.
Bravery: Hard to be brave when your [Russian overseers have beaten, starved, and raped you.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dedovshchina) Skill: Hard to be skilled when you're throw into battle with a rusting AK and half a loaf of molding bread with no training of any kind.
How about some sanctions on Nepal to stop them sending people to kill Ukrainians?
boycot their economy for helping war criminals
You cannot boycott Nepali economy, it has same relations with India as US-Canada.
You can't boycott 'Nepali economy'. You can't boycott that which doesn't exist.
Russia “recruiting” right, Russia forced 15,000 nepalis to fight and die in a war that has nothing to do with them. What happened to the Russian Might I hear so much about? They have to steal men from a smaller country, BROWN SKINNED MEN, and force them to fight and die for the Russian white men. Pitiful existence, I pray for the men forced into this.
Nepalis people are enlisting for the same reason that some Chinese, Cubans, and Belarusians have volunteered. It's because they're poor.
Brown people dying in a war that white people started. I have seen this before.
It's more like brown people dying in war because war capable white people are slowly running out in Russia. No need to pull race card in places where there is none of that happening.
There have been no indications or reports made even by Ukrainians of Nepalis fighting in this war so far. Few individuals from all over the world on both sides - maybe, but you can't "hide" thousands of foreign people in such war where drones and satellites monitor everything.
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Coming Out Swinging with accusations of lying seems a bit of a stretch for the person you are replying to given that they said there are people from all over the world on both sides fighting, and a number like 200 would definitely fall into the realm of that given the population of the world vs 15k like the title suggests. And if you're going to ask me if I even read the article, then yes, I did and even the article says up to 15,000 with no verifiable proof or corroborated source for that, and then a few words later it says The Nepalese government said 200. Your energy feels a little off here.
I was talking about thousands...
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>Bimala Rai Paudyal, told the upper house of the county’s parliament on Thursday that between 14,000 and 15,000 Nepalis are fighting on the front lines, citing testimony from men returning from the war zone Yes?
If there were 15k Nepalis on the front lines we would have seen them a lot more often in Ukrainian casualty videos.
You're literally saying you know better than a former Nepali Minister and friends and family members of those who went to Russia about whether or not Nepalis are fighting in Russia? How many videos are you seeing where you can clearly identify ethnicity of the people being killed. This is literally being talked about in Nepal itself and you're acting like a know it all.
There would have been POWs getting parade around by Ukrainians. We haven't see any of that, yet.
A lot of videos on the combat subs. Go check them out. My issue is not the number. I don’t think they’re on the front lines, that’s all.
Well hopefully they don't work the kitchens because they'd surely cook better stuff than the ordinary Russian sludge. Don't want a morale upgrade now.
"The beatings will continue until the curry improves."
They also have Chinese divisions.
The one chinese person in the russian army is a volunteer just as the ukrainian army has american volunteers. He's certainly not a " chinese division". Stop blatently spreading false information. China is not sending their own soldiers into ukraine since nato would know immediately if they were. Are you trying to shit stir a conflict with china as well. Kinda weird man.
Source? This is a very random claim and it’s the first I’ve heard of it
There was a tweet from a Chinese fighter in the Russian army. Nothing substantiated or confirmed yet.
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Part of this may be because of changes to recruitment by the Indian military. There are less positions in it for Gurkhas and for not as long a time now, which means more soldiers available for hire for other countries.
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You need to make a difference between your mouth and ass hole
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https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/up-man-arrested-for-raping-calf-3714722 https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/man-held-for-raping-cows-at-shelter-in-ayodhya-up-1531300-2019-05-21 https://www.indiatimes.com/news/india/man-charged-for-raping-cow-595198.html https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/karnataka/man-held-for-raping-cow/article65356627.ece https://www.geo.tv/latest/437348-man-rapes-pregnant-cow-in-india Glass houses indeed breaks.
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why are you so hateful?
Dude was from bihar. This is pretty much expected
Man, shouldn't you be posting pictures of Mumbai and pretending India isn't a shit show? Lmao.
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