 Central Asians pressed to fight in Ukraine with Russian troops. Dozens of families in Central Asia have received the bodies of their loved ones killed in Ukraine fighting alongside Russian forces in the year since Moscow's full-scale invasion began. In the past month, at least four families in Kyrgyzstan were told that a relative had died fighting in Ukraine after being recruited in Russian prisons by the mercenary fighting group Vardna. Among them was 30-year-old Erlen Ermekov, a native of the southern Osh region, who was serving a nine-year sentence for rape and robbery, his family said. In November, Ermekov signed a six-month contract with Vardna to fight in Ukraine in exchange for money, Russian citizenship and for his criminal records to be wiped clean. Ermekov saw it as a chance for a potential fresh start in his life, said his mother, Gulnara Zakirova, to Radio Liberty. Zakirova admits receiving money from Russia about $1,300 in the first month and $2,400 in the following months that she believes was her convict-turned-combatant son's wages paid by Vardna. But it didn't last long. Ermekov was killed in the battle zone on February 6th. His mother now supports a campaign to bring home all Kyrgyz convicts from Russia to serve the rest of their sentences in Kyrgyz prisons. I lost my only son and I don't want other families to suffer what I'm going through, she said. Kyrgyz authorities say 1,077 Kyrgyz nationals are currently serving prison terms in Russia, mostly on drug trafficking charges. There are thousands more from Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and other Central Asian countries imprisoned in Russia, a key destination for migrant workers from those former Soviet republics. Vardna, notorious for reportedly committing atrocities in combat zones around the world, is sought to command up to 50,000 fighters in Ukraine, with some 80% of them having enlisted while in a Russian prison, according to the US National Security Council and Russian activists. The families of Central Asian convicts in Russia insist that their relatives continue to face pressure, including physical and psychological mistreatment at the hands of prison administrations forcing them to go to war. Central Asian governments have repeatedly warned their citizens against taking part in foreign military conflicts.