Moscow has stressed that 16,000 “volunteers” from Middle Eastern countries have shown their willingness to join the war.
The president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, has expressed this Friday his support for the idea that “volunteers” participate in the invasion of Ukraine, after which the Minister of Defense, Sergei Shoigu, has said that 16,000 “volunteers” from Middle Eastern countries They have shown their willingness to join the Russian military offensive.
“If there are people who want, on a voluntary basis and especially not in exchange for money, to come and help people living in Donbas, you have to meet them halfway and help them get to the war zone,” he said. Putin sustained during a meeting of the Russian Security Council.
Thus, he has argued that Western countries “have not hidden” the sending of “mercenaries” to Ukraine to support the Ukrainian Armed Forces. “The Western sponsors of Ukraine and the Ukrainian regime do not hide it. They do it openly, ignoring all the norms of International Law,” he denounced.
Shoigu detailed during the meeting that the Ministry of Defense “has received a huge number of requests from various types of volunteers from different countries who would like to go to the people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk to participate in what they consider to be a liberation movement.
“The largest number is from countries of Middle Eastwith more than 16,000 requests,” he said, before adding that “many” of them have participated in the fight against Islamic State.
In this way, Shoigu has emphasized that the Russian authorities “consider it appropriate to respond positively to these requests, especially since they are not doing it for money, but out of a true desire to help these people”, thus disassociating these “volunteers “of possible mercenaries.
For his part, Kremlin spokesman Dimitri Peskov has said that these “volunteers” would not include Russian citizens. Thus, he has stressed that Shoigu “spoke mainly about people who have applied from the Middle East, from syria” and added that “compatriots have not been talked about”.
On the other hand, Putin has supported Shoigu’s initiative for the transfer to Donetsk and Lugansk of Western-made weapons captured by Russian forces during the offensive in Ukraine. “Of course, I support the possibility of transferring them to military units of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics,” she said.
Lastly, Shoigu has stressed that “new military units arrive every day” by NATO to areas near the border with Russia, although he has argued that “this is happening despite the fact that they are not being threatened by anyone at all”. “They want to saturate our border area to the maximum with forces, means and consolidate it for the long term,” she added.
Source: Eitb
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