The Kremlin threw a stone into the pond on Friday, saying it was in favor of the deployment of Syrian fighters in Ukraine. The sending of Syrians to the Ukrainian front was proposed on Friday by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to President Vladimir Putin, who hastened to approve during a meeting of his security council.
“If you see that people want to go there voluntarily (…) and help those who live in Donbass (eastern Ukraine), then you have to meet them and help them reach the combat zone,” said the ruler of the Kremlin.
“Mercenaries from all over the world to send them to Ukraine”
Then his spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, detailed the idea: Sergei Shoigu “said that above all, those who want, who asked are nationals of the Middle East, Syrians”. “If the Western world is so enthusiastic about the idea of the arrival of various and varied mercenaries, then on (our) side we also have volunteers who want to participate”, insisted Dmitry Peskov, seeming to refer to the creation of a legion of foreigners in the Ukrainian armed forces.
According to Vladimir Putin, “the Western godfathers of the Ukrainian regime are not even hiding” and are gathering “mercenaries from all over the world to send them to Ukraine”.
The entry in numbers of foreign fighters would mark a new escalation
On Friday afternoon, Russian state television broadcast undated images provided by the Russian Ministry of Defense showing a demonstration by Syrians, loyal to the regime. In uniforms and weapons in hand, they are gathered there against a background of banners in the colors of Russia and stamped with the portrait of the Russian president. “Veterans come to the recruitment sites of the Syrian armed forces and want to know if we are recruiting volunteers to be with Russia, as it has been with Syria”, detailed the ministry, according to Russian media. .
The nationality of these warriors presented as volunteers owes nothing to chance. Russia has provided considerable military support to the Syrian regime since the fall of 2015, supporting its forces against those of the opposition and those of the jihadists, de facto saving the power of Bashar al-Assad who now controls most of Syria. .
The influx of foreign fighters into the Ukrainian conflict would mark a further escalation as the Russian president has repeatedly insisted in recent days that the fighting will stop when Ukraine and the West give in to his demands. , including the neutrality and “demilitarization” of its western neighbor as well as the recognition of Russian sovereignty over the Crimean peninsula, annexed in 2014.