Writer : Ikhsan Abdul Hakim | Editor : Fadhilah
BEIRUT, KOMPAS.TV – Tens of thousands of veterans of the Syrian civil war are reported to be joining the Russian military in the “second phase” of the invasion of Ukraine.
The issue of joining Syrian veterans in the invasion of Ukraine has been rolling since last March.
However, until this news was revealed, only a few combatants had arrived in Russia to carry out military exercises before being sent to the battlefield.
At the start of the invasion, the Kremlin joked that there were more than 16,000 people from the Middle East who wanted to help it invade Ukraine.
However, US officials and Syrian monitoring activists say the number of combatants joining Russia has not been significant.
However, analysts say conditions could change ahead of the start of the “second phase” of the invasion.
Moscow itself announced that it would stage a second phase of the invasion since late March, focusing attacks on the Donbass region in eastern Ukraine.
Analysts expect more Syrian war veterans to join Russia in the upcoming major offensive against the Donbass.
What’s more, Russian President Vladimir Putin has appointed a new warlord in Ukraine, General Alexander Dvornikov, the official who also commanded Russian troops in Syria during the civil war.
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