Putin says Moscow ready to use Mideast fighters in Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin has backed the idea of sending volunteer fighters to Ukraine, though there are good reasons for Moscow to refrain from bringing them in from Syria and elsewhere.
As the Russian invasion of Ukraine enters its third week, there has been increasing talk about the participation of mercenaries and volunteer fighters coming from Syria and other Muslim-majority states to fight on both sides of the conflict.
On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin backed the idea of sending volunteer fighters to Ukraine. Speaking to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu during a televised security council meeting, he said, “If you see that there are people who want on a voluntary basis, especially not for money, to come and help [separatists in east Ukraine], well then you need to meet them halfway and help them move to the combat zones.”
Putin’s comments came in response to Shoigu’s statement that more than 16,000 volunteers from the Middle East had applied to be sent to eastern Ukraine to fight on Moscow’s side.
Anton Mardasov, a nonresident scholar in the Middle East Institute's Syria Program, told Al-Monitor that Putin and Shoigu’s statements at the security council meeting “were mostly political in nature.”
