A 22-year-old citizen of Tajikistan, Muhammadnazri Salomzoda, has been killed in the war in Ukraine, Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service, known locally as Radio Ozodi, reported, citing the victim’s relatives.
According to them, Salomzoda’s body is currently being held at a morgue in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don. His relatives, together with members of the Tajik diaspora, are taking steps to transport the body to Tajikistan for burial.
Family members said that Salomzoda held a Russian residence permit and had been working in Tyumen in recent months. He had applied for Russian citizenship and planned to return to Tajikistan to hold his wedding.
“After receiving his Russian passport, he was offered participation in the hostilities in Ukraine. He was forced to agree and was sent to the front. We learned about what had happened through social media and hoped until the very end that he would return,” one of his relatives said.
Friends of Salomzoda also told Radio Ozodi that he was sent to the war shortly after obtaining Russian citizenship. The exact date and location of his death remain unknown.
Relatives reported that as of January 8, Russian authorities had not provided them with official documents confirming the young man’s death. Salomzoda’s Russian passport and military ID have also not been found.
The funeral is planned to take place in his native village in Tajikistan’s Rasht district.
As Radio Ozodi notes, this is at least the fourth known case of a Tajik citizen killed in the war in Ukraine over the past month. In December 2025, three other natives of Tajikistan who died while serving in the Russian army were buried in their homeland: Ayubjon Pirov from Roudaki district, Azamat Sanginov from Panjakent, and Ghairat Begaliyev from Hamadoni district. According to the outlet’s sources, two of them were sent to the war from places of detention, while another was deployed after being promised assistance with legalizing his stay in Russia.
According to data from the Ukrainian state project “I Want to Live” as of November 2025, more than 7,500 people from Central Asian countries have joined the Russian armed forces, about 1,500 of whom have been killed.
Earlier, the project published three lists containing the names of around 2,000 natives of Tajikistan who fought on Russia’s side in the war, many of whom are believed to have been killed.
