Russian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly began a recruiting operation in Syria as the superpower continues into the third week of its unprovoked attack on and invasion of Ukraine. Russia's forces are looking to have Syrian mercenaries as a support or reinforcements for the continued war.
According to Fox News, commentators observing the Ukraine invasion believe that the enlisting of Syrian mercenaries is a result of Russia's poor planning of their attack on their neighbor, which led to many Russian soldiers being killed by Ukraine's surprisingly resilient resistance. As of last week, a U.S. official commented that there had been about 5,000 to 6,000 deaths among the Russian forces.
But Putin is looking to bolster his armed forces by enlisting Syrian mercenaries, who will be paid around $3,000 per month. The report said that Putin and his defense minister, Sergei Shoigu recently announced that up to 16,000 men from the Middle East will participate in Russia's war in Ukraine.
"It appears that Russia has opened 14 mercenary recruitment centers in Syria in territories controlled by the regime of Bashar al-Assad (Damascus, Aleppo, Hama, Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor)," Theodore Karasik, a fellow on Russian and Middle Eastern Affairs at the Jamestown Foundation in Washington, explained. "After a short training, the mercenaries will be transported to Russia through the Khmeimim Air Base by two Tu-134 (up to 80 passengers) and Tu-154 (up to 180 passengers) aircraft to the Chkalovsky Air Base, Moscow region."
Karasik warned that there is also an "information war" going on involving the recruitment of fighters in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. He said that evidence has been found that fighters will enter the "battle space" in "greater numbers" in the coming weeks. He added that the "battle space" is being "prepared for partisan warfare" and that it is "taking lessons learned from Grozny and Syria," which will be "important for all actors."
"Recruitment drives are robust and supported by state actors," Karasik remarked. Meanwhile, Brig. Gen. Ahmad Rahal, who left the Syrian military in 2012 after protesting the policies of President Bashar Assad and joined the opposition Free Syria Army, said that Russia will use Syrian mercenaries to carry out the "dirty tasks" of fighting in the cities, which will cause more civilian deaths.
According to CBS News, more than 40,000 Syrians have registered to travel to Ukraine to fight alongside Russian troops that continue its march on the country's largest cities. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a Syrian non-governmental group made the announcement, but none of the thousands of enlistees have left the country yet.
SOHR said that a notice has been sent out to members of the Al-Qatarji militia as part of the recruitment process. But the Al-Qatarji militia is a group that faced U.S. sanctions after it served as an intermediary between the Assad regime and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). SOHR added that payment would be around $1,500 to $2,500.
"If you see that there are these people who want of their own accord, not for money, to come to help the people living in Donbas, then we need to give them what they want and help them get to the conflict zone," Putin told Russia's security council last week. Meanwhile, Ukraine's much smaller military forces that continue to resist Russia has also called upon foreign fighters to join their defense, a call that has been responded by thousands of American fighters as well.
