Putin recruits Syrian mercenaries as Russian ground forces falter

It is no secret that Russian ground forces have not fared well since President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine 12 days ago.

So far, there have been reports of heavy causalities, failing equipment and dwindling morale, especially amongst young conscripts -- who Putin has repeatedly denied are involved in his “special military operation.”

"Only professional military take part in this operation - officers and volunteers. There is not a single conscript there, and we do not plan [to involve conscripts], and we are not going to." the Russian News Agency TASS reported him saying.

But as Russian forces continue to die in battle or go AWOL, the Kremlin is indeed enlisting mercenaries and other non-professional soldiers to help bolster stymied military operations in Ukraine – the latest being experienced urban fighters from Syria, according to senior U.S. officials, The Wall Street Journal reported.

These war-hardened soldiers are expected to support the Russian armed forces as the Kremlin prepares to attempt to take Kyiv, where Ukrainian armed forces and civilian fighters are expected to fall back on guerrilla-style urban warfare to push back the invading force.

Although it remains unclear how many Syrian fighters have already landed in Ukraine, the Journal reported that a Syrian newspaper in the eastern city of Deir Ezzor has offered volunteers between $200 and $300 “to go to Ukraine and operate as guards” for six-month stretches.”

The Syrians are, in theory, experts at urban warfare and according to Jennifer Cafarella, a ​national security fellow at the Institute for the Study of War in Washington, possess combat skills that the Russian conscripts lack.

But Charles Lister, a Syria expert at the Middle East Institute in Washington, has said that the skills acquired in the Middle East might not translate for urban European warfare.

“Bringing Syrians into Ukraine is like bringing Martians to fight on the moon,” ​Lister said. “They don’t speak the language, the environment is totally different.”

Putin, however, has also looked close to home when recruiting additional forces to reinforce his ranks.

A report published by The Times of London revealed that the Kremlin deployed more than 400 paid mercenaries into Kyiv tasked with decapitating Zelensky’s government in return for a “handsome financial bonus.”

According to the report, between 2,000 and 4,000 mercenaries with the Wagner Group -- a private Russian military company reportedly owned by the Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin – entered Ukraine through Belarus in January and were ordered to kill 23 senior Ukrainian figures, including President Zelensky, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko.

Similarly, Putin unleashed a squad of an estimated 12,000 Chechen jihadi fighters into Ukraine, allegedly ordering them to detain or kill a select group of Ukrainian officials.

Ramzan Kadyrov, the Islamic leader of Russia's Chechnya region and one of Putin’s most loyal henchmen, said last month that forces under his control had been deployed to Ukraine and had so far suffered no losses, Reuters reported.

"As of today, as of this minute, we do not have one single casualty, or wounded, not a single man has even had a runny nose," Kadyrov said, insisting that Ukrainian sources and widely reported mainstream media reports were all false.

On the day before his troops moved into Ukraine, the Muslim leader -- who previously described himself as Putin’s “foot soldier” -- addressed his forces in the central square of the Chechen capital of Grozny and said that upwards of 70,000 volunteer fighters would serve in the “hottest spots in Ukraine.”

“Taking this opportunity, I want to give advice to the current President Zelensky so that he calls our President, Supreme Commander Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, and apologizes for not doing so sooner. Do it in order to save Ukraine. Ask for forgiveness and agree to all the conditions that Russia puts forward. This will be the most correct and patriotic step for him,” the leader declared.