Russia[/B] has recruited Syrian fighters for its offensive in Ukraine, according to a Wall Street Journal report citing four U.S. officials.
The US newspaper reported that some Syrian mercenaries are already in Russia - which has been operating inside Syriaw since 2015 - and are preparing to deploy to Ukraine.
The mercenaries have experience in urban warfare and could therefore help Russian troops take Kiev, the WSJ wrote.
U.S. officials declined to specify what else is known about the deployment of Syrian fighters to Ukraine, the status or the exact scale of the entire operation.
According to a report in Syria's Deir Ezzor, Russia has offered volunteers from the country a fee of between $200 and $300 "to go to Ukraine and act as guards" for six months at a time.
Chechen forces have also been deployed to Ukraine, according to a Reuters report citing Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of the Chechen Republic and an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
On the opposing side, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba claimed 16.000 foreign volunteers entered the country to join the Ukrainian armed forces.
Russia is threatening these fighters with criminal proceedings if they are arrested: "I would like to officially stress that all mercenaries sent by the West to help the nationalist regime in Kiev (...) have no right to be considered prisoners of war if they are arrested," Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told the Interfax news agency. "They should think seven times; Russia will hold them criminally responsible if they are arrested," he added."
German far-rightists in Ukraine?
German intelligence agencies do not rule out the possibility that there are German far-rightists among those "willing" to fight as mercenaries in Ukraine. "It is true that it has not escaped our attention that there have been calls for them to leave the country and fight for the Ukrainian side," says Stefan Kramer, head of intelligence in Thuringia.
In this context, the far-right Ukrainian "Azov Battalion, which previously had intensive contacts with like-minded people in Germany, but also in Europe and the U.S."
"At the moment, however, it is difficult to verify who is actually in the war zone," Kramer said. He recalled that German far-right extremists had fought in the past during the conflict in the former Yugoslavia.
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution recently reported isolated indications of far-right extremists leaving for Ukraine. A spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Interior said that "less than ten cases" were reported, however.
Source: in.gr
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