FOREIGN LEGION

Russia Sending Syrian Fighters to Push Deeper Into Ukrainian Cities: Report

Moscow hopes Syria’s fighters, more experienced in urban combat, can help take Kyiv and other major cities.

As Russian forces attempt to invade Ukrainian cities, Moscow is poised to deploy Syrian fighters with expertise in urban combat, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal. Citing unnamed U.S. officials, the newspaper said Sunday that Russia has begun recruiting from Syria, though it is unclear how many fighters have been mobilized, or how close they are to entering the conflict. A Syrian publication said last week that Russian authorities were offering mercenaries between $200 and $300 to go to Ukraine “as guards” for six months, the Journal said. Though Ukraine’s major cities, Kyiv and Kharkiv, remain under the control of Volodymyr Zelensky’s government, the recruitment of Syrian fighters has the potential to drastically escalate the scale of the conflict, according to experts. “The Russia deployment of foreign fighters from Syria into Ukraine internationalizes the Ukraine war,” Jennifer Cafarella, a national security expert in Washington, D.C., told the Journal, “and therefore could link the war in Ukraine to broader cross regional dynamics, particularly in the Middle East.”