Russia Is Recruiting Syrian Fighters to Battle in Ukraine

Russia is recruiting Syrians with skills in urban combat to fight with it in Ukraine, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing US officials. Some Syrian fighters already have deployed to Russia and are getting ready to enter Ukraine, one official told the WSJ. It is not known how many Syrians have been recruited for the effort, which, experts told the newspaper, points to a potential escalation of fighting in Ukraine. Russia reportedly has offered volunteers from Syria between $200 and $300 “to operate as guards” in Ukraine for six months at a time. Syrian fighters have spent the last decade of their country’s civil war engaged in urban warfare, a skill that most Russian conscripts lack. Russia has backed authoritarian Syrian President Bashar Assad since 2015 when it chose sides and entered Syria’s civil war, though it mostly participates through airstrikes. The Russian use of Syrian fighters could link the Russo-Ukrainian War to the regional dynamics of the Middle East, experts told the newspaper. At the same time, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba says around 20,000 foreign volunteers have traveled to the country to join his country’s forces.