Russian soldier Bakhretdin Khakimov missing for 33 years FOUND living as sheikh in Afghanistan

A Soviet soldier in Afghanistan who went missing in combat 33 years ago has been found alive, living a semi-nomadic existence.

Red Army conscript Bakhretdin Khakimov was presumed dead after he vanished with Leonid Brezhnev in power in the Kremlin during the USSR's ill-feted Afghan War from 1979 to 1989. 

In fact, he was wounded in battle in 1980 and was rescued and cared for by local Afghans. 

 

Discovery: Soviet officers and soldiers leave their base outside Afghan capital Kabul as they retu to the home. Nearly 33 years after he went missing in Afghanistan a Soviet soldier has been found

He then adopted an Afghan name, Sheikh Abdullah, married a local woman, who later died, and today practises herbal medicine in the weste province of Herat. 

Khakimov, an ethnic Uzbek, was tracked down in Shindand district after a search for 264 Red Army soldiers who remain unaccounted for.

He had served with a motorised rifle unit, and still has injuries from his war wounds. He understood Russian but spoke it very poorly.

New life: An Afghan burqa-clad woman walks in the old city of Herat - the ex-soldier semi-nomadic and spend his days practicing herbal medicine in the weste province of Herat

SOVIET WAR: A MILITARY STALEMATE

-The Soviets invaded Afghanistan on December 27, 1979

- They wanted to make Afghanistan a mode socialist state and were supporting the Marxist-Leninist govement of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan

- They were battling against the Mujahideen Resistance

- They left, largely defeated, on February 15, 1989

- The official result was a 'military stalemate'

- An estimated one million Afghan civilians died

- The Soviets lost 15,000 men, the Mujahideen lost an estimated 75-90,000 soldiers and the Mujahideen lost 18,000

'His memory is sound, and he quickly gave the names of his parents, brothers and sister. He wants to meet his relatives,' said Alexander Lavrentiev, deputy chairman of a veterans' committee which has organised the hunt for missing servicemen. 

Brother Sharof Khakimov, from Samarkand, said: 'It is very sad that our parents did not live to see today.
'I recognised my brother on the photograph they showed me. I can't wait to see him.'

A reunion is expected within the next week.

Lavrentiev said that soldier recognised the pictures of two other missing soldiers, and said they were also living new lives in Herat region. 

In the first decade after Soviet withdrawal veterans found 29 missing soldiers. Most - 22 - retued to Russia but seven remained in Afghanistan.

The graves of 15 others were found. 

The Soviets invaded Afghanistan on December 27, 1979. 

They wanted to make Afghanistan a mode socialist state and were supporting the Marxist-Leninist govement of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.

They wanted to make Afghanistan a mode socialist state and were supporting the Marxist-Leninist govement of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.

The official result was a 'military stalemate' and they left, largely defeated, on February 15, 1989.

The Soviets lost 15,000 men, the Mujahideen lost an estimated 75-90,000 soldiers and the Mujahideen lost 18,000.