Russian President Vladimir Putin has called for foreign volunteers to join hands with Russian troops in the fight against Ukrainian forces, BBC reports.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu disclosed that there were about 16,000 volunteers in the Middle East willing to fight alongside Russia-backed forces.
“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,” Mr Putin told his defence minister.
“As to the delivery of arms, especially Western-made ones which have fallen into the hands of the Russian army – of course I support the possibility of giving these to the military units of the Lugansk and Donetsk people’s republics”.
Wall Street Journal reports that US officials have told the paper that Russia “has in recent days been recruiting fighters from there, hoping their expertise in urban combat can help take Kyiv and deal a devastating blow to the Ukraine government”.
