CHENNAI: A 21-year-old Tamil Nadu native who was turned down twice by the Indian Army is now fighting in the Ukrainian Army against invading Russian troops.

According to intelligence reports received by the Union government, the Tamil youth, Sainikhesh Ravichandran of Thudaliyur in Coimbatore, is a student of Aerospace engineering at Ukraine's Kharkiv National University.

A group of Central Intelligence Bureau officers reportedly visited Sanikesh's home a few days ago and gathered all the information they could about him and why he joined the Ukrainian military.

According to police officers, his parents told the intelligence sleuths that he had a passion for military and armed training and showed them his room, which was plastered with photographs of Indian military and officers. Sainiikesh, had according to the police officers, enquired with the US consulate in Chennai to join in the US military but as he knew that it was not possible he had returned home.

His family members said, he was actively pursuing his five-year aerospace engineering course and had informed them a few days before the war broke out that he had landed a job with a video game development company.

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