Kathmandu, March 19 -- As the afternoon sun blazed down one afternoon last week, neighbours gathered at the house of Raghu Nath Adhikari in Kapurthan village of Jhapa district in Nepal's southeastern plains.

Raghu Nath got off his bicycle, and joined the crowd at his house. Breathing heavily, he told his neighbours, "The astrologer said that nothing has happened and that we will receive news by next Saturday, but the person himself will not come back to us."

The well-wishers were crestfallen, not knowing what words they could offer the elderly man. Adhikari then quietly entered his house.

The day before, Nepal's Foreign Ministry had published the names of seven more Nepalis who had died fighting in the Russian Army on the Ukraine fro...