The Wall Street Journal quoted US officials that Russia recruits Syrian mercenaries with an experienced guerrilla war in cities, to fight in Ukraine.
Syrian mercenaries
Four officials of the American newspaper said that Moscow, which started to invade Ukraine on February 24 and faced resistance that it did not expect, began in recent days the recruitment of Syrian fighters for use in cities.
A US official told the newspaper that some Syrian fighters are already present in Russia and are preparing to join the battles in Ukraine.This source did not provide more details.
There are foreign fighters on both sides of the front in Ukraine.The strong Chechen man, Ramadan Kadyrov, the former rebel who turned an ally of the Kremlin, released videos of Chechen fighters in Ukraine, and said that some of them were killed in the battles.
Objects to recruit a Tunisian prisoner
On the other hand, a source in the Tunisian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the authorities are in the process of investigating what press reports of allegations of recruitment operations of Tunisian nationals arrested in Ukrainian prisons of the war against Russian forces.
The Director of General Diplomacy and Media at the Ministry, Mohamed Trabelsi, told the German News Agency that the Tunisian authorities had contacted the Ukraine ambassador who had requested Tunisia to request information on these local and international reports, which have already reported testimonies about Tunisians in Ukraine.
"We expressed our position in principle and we told the ambassador that this matter is contrary to international law. But he assured us that there is no truth to these reports," Trabelsi said."We are communicating on a daily basis with the Ukrainian ambassador to follow up on the evacuation of the Tunisians," Trabelsi added.
The Private Radio "Mosaique" in Tunisia offered a form in the Ukrainian language that is filled by Tunisian prisoners and other nationalities dating back to February 25, and it represents a demand directed to the prison director, stopping centers and the Ukrainian presidency of the war against Russia.
The radio said that the document that it offered was returning to a Tunisian prisoner in one of the Ukrainian suspension centers, carrying his signature and signed by prison director Sergey Protengo.The investigations are still ongoing in the Tunisian Foreign Ministry, while local media reported that six Tunisians are in Ukrainian prisons.
Senegalese objections
Last Thursday, Dakar Kiev expressed her dissatisfaction with her call to fight in Ukraine and called on her to withdraw this call and stop recruitment operations from Senegal after announcing the recruitment of 36 people to help the war against the Russians.
A week after the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, the Senegal Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that it "is surprised to publish an appeal to citizens to help on the third of March on the Ukrainian embassy page in Dakar on Facebook."
The statement, which was published on Thursday evening, added that the Ukrainian ambassador in Senegal Jurel Bevovarov was called to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (in Dakar) to verify the publication and confirm its validity:
The statement continued that Bevovarov "confirmed the existence of an invitation and recruitment of 36 volunteers from the candidates," the statement, which does not determine the identities of these people, added that Dakar "strongly condemns this work, which is a violation of the duty to respect the laws and regulations of the host state."
On the other side of the front, tens of thousands of volunteers traveled to Ukraine to join its forces, according to the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dmitro Coleba.
Kyiv and Karkiv, the second largest city in Ukraine, is still under the control of the Ukrainian government, while Russia has seized the coastal city of Khaisson and has escalated its shelling of urban centers throughout the country.
A.H./F.(AFP, dpa)