Russia and Ukraine have swapped thousands of PoWs, but Mohammed* says he would rather fight alongside Kyiv than go home.

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 Tajikistan, the poorest nation of ex-Soviet Central Asia.

He saw the trip as a way of boosting his income and sending remittances home, like millions of Central Asian economic migrants who travel to Russia each year or live there full-time.

He entered Russia visa-free, paid 6,000 rubles ($74) a month for a renewable work permit, and shared a shabby rented apartment with six others while working at a food stall.

But months after arriving, the life he had carefully carved out was shattered.

He told Al Jazeera that, having forgotten to pay the fee for the work permit, he was rounded up by police, beaten and denied food. In detention, Russian military officers forced him to sign up to the army, he said.

He said he had no choice but to serve.

He travelled to Ukraine and fought alongside Russian troops and foreign fighters on Moscow’s side.

Earlier this year, however, Ukrainian troops captured him.