How a store manager from India ended up killed on the battlefields of Ukraine fighting for Russia

They opened the box on a Sunday in late March, getting their first look at Asfan Mohammed since he departed India for Russia four months earlier.

They opened the box on a Sunday in late March, getting their first look at Asfan Mohammed since he departed India for Russia four months earlier. He was better dressed than when he’d left – a black suit, white shirt, tie and shoes replacing the casual attire he’d worn when family and friends saw him off. But he had to be buried in line with his Muslim beliefs, so his body would need to be prepared; the neat clothes removed. It was then Imran Mohammad, 41, saw the extent of what had happened to his 31-year-old brother while fighting for the Russian armed forces in Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. “I saw holes on the back of his shoulder, his ribs right down till his lower back,” Imran told CNN. “There were six to seven holes caused by a drone attack. It ripped through his body. There was internal damage. Two teeth were broken.”