Syrians join Russian ranks in Ukraine as Putin calls in Assad’s debt | Russia | The Guardian

Quote

Syrians join Russian ranks in Ukraine as Putin calls in Assad’s debt

After 11 years of war, the destruction of towns, cities and much of the Syrian military, Bashar al-Assad’s army has launched a recruitment drive. But the recruits are not fresh from bootcamps and will not fight on the home front. They are the vanguard of what could be the biggest state-backed mercenary force in the world. Within days, Syrian troops could be deployed to reinforce the stalled Russian frontlines in Ukraine, where Vladimir Putin is about to extract a lethal price for Moscow’s rescue of the Syrian leader.

 

The first Syrian troops to join Putin’s ranks – an advance force of 150 – arrived in Russia on Thursday, European intelligence officials claim. Ukrainian military intelligence, echoing a claim by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, believes 40,000 Syrians have signed up to fight – a figure that would represent a sizeable chunk of the battle-ready capacity of the country’s entire military.

Quote

In western Syria, some of the regime’s most prestigious units claim to have signed up thousands from their ranks. The Fifth Division, which was trained by Moscow, the 4th Division, which is loyal to Assad’s brother, Maher, and the Tiger Forces, which played prominent roles in the war, are all central to the recruitment push, which will seriously stretch their already depleted ranks and potentially turn Assad’s ragtag army into the largest mercenary force in Ukraine.

Quote

Ukrainian officials say the mercenary force will fly from the Khmeimim base on daily military transport flights. Militia groups that had fought alongside them are also joining the recruitment drive, with Palestinians, National Defence Front troops, the Ba’ath party and even some members of Shia militia groups that fought in Syria under Iran’s auspices joining in.

 

Pro-regime militia groups have been trained and backed by Russian units since late 2015, when Putin formally intervened to save Assad. At that point, the Iranian general Qassem Suleimani had convinced Putin that Assad was only weeks away from losing the Alawite heartland of western Syria to opposition groups who had decimated his armoured units with precision-guided missiles smuggled across the Turkish border by the CIA.

 

Ever since, Putin has established a tutelage over Assad and, during visits to Syria, has rarely wasted an opportunity to assert his dominance. During inspections of Russian troops at Kheimemin, Putin led entourages, forcing Assad to trail behind him. He has insisted on meetings in Russian bases instead of the presidential palace – a clear slight to a leader who he regularly complained was yet to return Russia’s investment in blood and treasure.

I'm pretty sure that's a war crime and Moscow is I think one of the less supportive areas for Putin.  Or at least there's more dissidents there than in most places.