U.S. officials say Russia is recruiting Syrian fighters in the hopes that their skill in urban combat will help Moscow overthrow Kyiv, The Wall Street Journal reports.
According to Syrian publication Deir Ezzo, Russia is offering Syrian fighters "salaries ranging between 200 and 300 USD" to operate as "guards" for six months.
At this time, it is unknown how many Syrian fighters have been recruited, and U.S. officials have declined to elaborate on the matter.
But Jennifer Cafarella, a national security fellow at the Institute for the Study of War in Washington, D.C., said, "the Russia deployment of foreign fighters from Syria into Ukraine internationalizes the Ukraine war, and therefore could link the war in Ukraine to broader cross regional dynamics, particularly in the Middle East."
Cafarella adds that Syrian forces could also work in a support role, similar to how they worked in Syria operating alongside the Wagner Group, a mercenary force some believe to be a proxy of the Russian government.
In the past, Russia had aided Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime via airstrikes in the Syrian civil war.