[BR]
Moscow, which moved to invade Ukraine on Feb. 24 and has met fierce resistance it did not expect, has in recent days begun recruiting Syrian fighters to deploy them in operations aimed at seizing urban areas, four U.S. officials told the U.S. newspaper.
Russia became involved in the 2015 war in Syria on the side of Bashar al-Assad's regime.
A US official assured the WSJ that some Syrian fighters are already in Russia preparing to join hostilities in Ukraine. This source did not go into further details.
Foreign fighters are already present, on both sides, on the Ukrainian fronts.
Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov, a one-time rebel turned loyal Kremlin ally, has shared videos of Chechen fighters in Ukraine and has acknowledged that some of them have been killed in fighting.
On the other side, tens of thousands of foreign volunteers have gone to Ukraine to join its forces, according to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba.
The capital, Kiev, as well as the second largest city, Kharkiv, always remain in the hands of the Ukrainian government, while Russia has seized Kherson, a city where a strategic port is located, and is escalating its bombing and sieges of several urban centers across the country.
The Russian invasion, entering its twelfth day, has forced more than 1.5 million people to flee Ukraine; the UN calls this refugee crisis the fastest growing in Europe since World War II.
Source: APE-MPA
Contents of this article including associated images are belongs Cyprus Times
Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or Cyprus Times
Source
