Russia: US Deploys Syrian ISIS ‘Al-Tanf’ Terrorists to Ukraine (confirmed)

The Russian Defence Ministry said on Thursday that US military intelligence was stepping up a campaign to recruit mercenaries for Ukraine. Around 200 Croatian mercenaries arrived in Ukraine via Poland last week, the Russian Defence Ministry’s spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.

“US military intelligence has launched a large-scale propaganda campaign to recruit PMC [private military company] contractors to be sent to Ukraine. First of all, employees of the American PMCs Academi, Cubic, and Dyn Corporation are being recruited. […] Only last week, about 200 mercenaries from Croatia arrived through Poland, who joined one of the nationalist battalions in the southeast of Ukraine”.

He emphasised that foreign mercenaries in Ukraine cannot be considered prisoners of war (POW) if detained in line with international humanitarian law. When detained, they can expect criminal prosecution at best, Konashenkov said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that nationalist and neo-Nazi formations, which include foreign mercenaries from the Middle East, are using civilians in Ukraine as human shields. The Kremlin stressed that neo-Nazis in Ukraine are using terrorist methods by deploying heavy weapons in residential areas.

The Kremlin’s press service also said that there’s been an increasing number of foreign mercenaries in Ukraine, including from Albania and Croatia, as well as Kosovo militants and jihadists with military experience in Syria.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the creation of a foreign legion, the International Legion of Territorial Defence of Ukraine. Days later, the country’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, claimed that more than a thousand mercenaries from 16 countries were headed to Ukraine. Zelensky has asserted that about 16,000 foreign mercenaries were going to fight for Ukraine.

On 24 February, Russian President Vladimir Putin authorised a special military operation in Ukraine following a request from the Donbass republics, which he had recognised a few days earlier.

“The goal [of the Russian special operation] is to protect people who have been subjected to abuse, genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years, and for this we will strive to demilitarise and de-Nazify Ukraine, as well as bring to justice those who committed numerous bloody crimes against peaceful residents, including citizens of the Russian Federation”, Putin said in his televised address to citizens.

*Daesh, also known as ISIS/IS/Islamic State, is a terrorist group banned in Russia and many other countries.