Kallur (Thrissur)∙ Santhosh and Ren also came to see the lifeless body of Sandeep Chandran, who was killed during the war in the Russian-occupied Ukraine. Kodakara Kanakamala Kattungal Santhosh (40) and Ernakulam Kurambasseri Punnakkal Ren (43) were with Sandeep in Russia. They returned home two weeks ago.

6 people including Agent Sandeep from Chalakudy were sent to Russia to work in the canteen of the Russian military camp. All those who left were scattered in different groups. They say that they did not know much about the information as there were no other Malayalis in the group that included Sandeep.

In the first phase, it was work in the canteen. Later he was given a Russian passport and put into training. They say that it was not possible to respond.

When the war intensified, everyone was sent along with the army with weapons. As the killing of Sandeep became big news in India, the agent in Russia had instructed not to tell anyone about the developments in Russia for the time being. The threat was that the Russians would move themselves to the front lines where the war would be more dangerous if they found out that the information had been passed back home.

The intervention of the embassy came during an effort to deploy them to the war-torn border. With this, it was announced that Santhosh, Renil and CB (27) of Kollam Mayannur Kannamkara Puthan House were excluded from the group.

They were relieved to have come out of the face of death. Binil, a native of Kuttanellur, and Jain, a native of Kurancheri, who came to Russia through an agent in Chalakudy, were exempted from the battle line but could not return home. Their relatives also reached Kallur yesterday.