US Officials Claim Russia Is Recruiting Syrian Combatants To Fight In Ukraine

Washington: US officials have said that Russia is recruiting Syrian fighters who are well versed in urban combat to fight alongside the Russian armed forces in the ongoing war in Ukraine.

As per the officials, the fighters from Syria have been recruited by Moscow in the hope that its pursuit of capturing Kyiv gets a huge boost. Although the capital city has not fallen so far, there have been multiple reports which say that the Russians have encircled the city.

An official even went on to say that some fighters have already landed in Russia and are ready to assist the Russian army's missions in Ukraine but the total number of recruited combatants is not clear.

It is to be noted that the Russians made their entry in the catastrophic Syrian Civil War in 2015 and sided with President Bashar al-Assad's regime. It is widely believed that the Assad regime in Damascus would have fallen if Moscow would not have come to its rescue.

The middle eastern country has been ravaged by war for more than a decade and the conflict had been marked by urban combat. Hence, it is quite possible that the Kremlin could utilize this experience of urban warfare on the battlefield of Ukraine.

Also, Putin has had a history of covertly deploying private mercenaries in conflict zones. These mercenaries fight on the behalf of the Russian state in return for a hefty amount.

Foreign fighters have also entered the Ukrainian conflict on both sides.

Ramzan Kadyrov, a Chechen leader, who was once a rebel but now a Kremlin ally, has sided with Moscow. He has even shared videos of Chechen fighters joining the offensive on Ukraine and said that some had been killed in the fighting.

On the other hand, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister has claimed that as many as 20,000 foreign volunteers have travelled to the country to help the Ukrainians defend their country.

Meanwhile, a lot of Ukrainian civilians have taken up arms to defend their land. Earlier, President Zelensky had appealed to the masses to help the Ukrainian army fend off the Russian onslaught.

Kyiv and Kharkiv, the second-largest city in Ukraine are still controlled by the Ukrainian government despite heavy bombardment by Moscow. However, the Russians have managed to seize the port city of Kherson and have ramped up their assault on urban centres across the country.

More than 1.5 million people have fled the country as a result of this devastating war. The United Nations has called it Europe's fastest-growing refugee crisis since World War II.

Also read: Russia Almost Completes Destruction Of Ukrainian Military Infrastructure: Putin

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