The latest cohort of seagoing asylum seekers fleeing oppression are indigenous Russians escaping conscription into the war in Ukraine.

Two Russian Indigenous Siberians took to a small boat to cross the treacherous Bering Sea to avoid having to fight the war in Ukraine.

Local reports from Alaska say the pair chanced their lives in a small boat to reach American soil, according to Alaska’s senior US senator after she talked to them.

Senator Lisa Murkowski told media the pair landed earlier this month near Gambell, on Alaska’s St Lawrence Island, where they asked for asylum.

“They feared for their lives because of Russia, who is targeting minority populations, for conscription into service in Ukraine,” Sen Murkowski told a local meeting.

“It is very clear to me that these individuals were in fear, so much in fear of their own government that they risked their lives and took a 15-foot skiff across those open waters,” she said.

“It is clear that Russian President Vladimir Putin is focused on a military conquest at the expense of his own people. He’s got one hand on Ukraine and he’s got the other on the Arctic, so we have to be eyes wide open on the Arctic,” Sen Murkowski said.

She told local media she met with the two Siberians recently but didn’t provide more details about exactly when or where the meeting took place or where their asylum process stood but confirmed their request for asylum, saying the men reportedly fled one of the coastal communities on Russia’s east coast.

Gambell is an Alaska Native community of about 600 people about 58 kilometres from Russia’s Chukotka Peninsula in Siberia.

Although visit from Russian indigenous people to the island are not rare, two men seeking asylum were unknown to the people of Gambell, reports say.

“They were foreigners and didn’t have any passports, so they put them in jail,” a local man media.

The two men spent the night in the jailhouse, but townspeople in Gambell brought them food.

They were picked up by the US Coast Guard and taken to the state capital of Anchorage.

“The individuals were transported to Anchorage for inspection, which includes a screening and vetting process, and then subsequently processed in accordance with applicable US immigration laws under the Immigration and Nationality Act,” a statement by the US Department of Homeland Security.

Immigration experts says it is unlikely information about the Russians will ever be officially released.

They say it would be up to the two Russians to publicise their situation, which could put their families in Russia at risk.

Thousands of Russian men have fled the country after President Putin announced in September the mobilisation of 300,000 men with past military experience to bolster forces in Ukraine.