Russia is recruiting Syrian citizens for "meat assaults" in Ukraine. They are first promised Russian passports and paid work, and then sent to the front.
This was reported by the Main Directorate of Intelligence (known as GUR) of Ukraine.
This, in particular, happened to the Syrians Mohammed Mansour and Vahid Mursala Al-Shibli — they fought against Ukraine as part of the 488th motorized rifle regiment of the 114th motorized rifle division of the Russian army (military unit 12721).
In July 2024, Mansur, as part of a squad of 14 Syrian mercenaries, was sent by the Russians to attack near the city of Svatove, the Luhansk region. Ukrainian soldiers covered them with fire.
The Russian military rejected the request to evacuate the wounded and ordered the Syrians to continue the assault. Mansur, who was wounded, did not obey the order of the Russians and fled from the battlefield. The rest of the mercenary detachment was destroyed — the Russians registered them as missing.
Already on September 15, 2024, the Syrian public wrote about the death of a Syrian during the war against Ukraine. Villager Vahid Mursal Al-Shibli received a Russian passport and went to storm Ukrainian positions in the Luhansk region as part of a squad of 7 mercenaries. The group was defeated, Mursal was wounded and died due to lack of evacuation. The fate of other fighters of the Syrian detachment is unknown.
Intelligence says Russia has set up a scheme with travel firms to recruit Syrians for the war against Ukraine — first offering them jobs as bodyguards in Russiaʼs oil provinces and then luring them with higher wages to participate in "meat raids."
- This is not the first time that Russia involves foreigners in the war with Ukraine through deception — for example, by offering work. Such cases became more frequent at the end of last year. In February 2024, Ukrainian intelligence published a list of Syrian mercenaries recruited by Russia for the war against Ukraine — then there were 141 people on the list.
- Currently, there are established facts of recruitment of citizens of Nepal, India, Syria, Serbia and Somalia into the Russian army. The Russian Federation also recruited illegal migrants to its army from the Finnish border who tried to get to the EU through Russia. As for the citizens of Nepal and India, some of them are already in captivity or have died. There are already videos on social networks with Africans as part of the Russian Armed Forces stationed in Ukraine.