Ukrainian forces capture member of one of Russia’s rarest Indigenous peoples Ukrainian troops have shown a captured Russian soldier named Alexander — a member of the Ket people, one of Siberia’s rarest Indigenous groups. According to the latest census, fewer than 1,200 Kets remain in Russia. Their language is nearly extinct, and their culture is on the verge of disappearing. Alexander says he was tricked into joining the army. While drunk, he got into a fight with several men who then forced him to enter a fake marriage, took him to a military office, and made him sign a contract. This resembles Russia’s notorious “black widow” schemes, where women marry soldiers to receive payouts if they die — only here, it’s even more cynical: a vanishing people are being wiped out completely, sent to die in someone else’s war for profit.
See Tweet