LONDON (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin gave the inexperienced gentle on Friday to usher in 1000’s of fighters from the Middle East to fight towards Ukraine.
At a gathering of Russia’s Security Council, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu mentioned there have been 16,000 volunteers within the Middle East who have been prepared to come to fight with Russian-backed forces within the breakaway Donbass area of japanese Ukraine.
“If you see that there are these individuals who need of their very own accord, not for cash, to come to assist the folks residing in Donbass, then we’d like to give them what they need and assist them get to the battle zone,” Putin mentioned.
Shoigu additionally proposed that Western-made Javelin and Stinger missiles that have been captured by the Russian military in Ukraine must be handed over to Donbass forces.
“As to the supply of arms, particularly Western-made ones which have fallen into the palms of the Russian military – in fact I help the potential of giving these to the army models of the Lugansk and Donetsk folks’s republics,” Putin mentioned.
“Please do that,” he advised Shoigu.
Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 quickly after Putin recognised the breakaway territories as impartial states, in an motion condemned internationally as unlawful.
Russia says its “particular army operation” in Ukraine was a pressured response to what it calls genocide by Ukraine towards Russian-speakers within the east of the nation – a pretext rejected by Kyiv and the West as baseless warfare propaganda.
Shoigu mentioned the Russian army deliberate to strengthen its Western border after what he mentioned was a rise in Western army models on Russia’s border.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Alex Richardson)
