Kremlin recruits 10,000-20,000 mercenaries to send to battlefield in eastern Ukraine. In particular, we are talking about fighters from Syria and Libya..

Business Insider writes about this, citing European officials.. One of them, speaking at a press briefing in Washington on condition of anonymity, said that it is now difficult to say exactly how many mercenaries from which country Russia is transferring to the war against Ukraine.. However, they were all recruited through the Wagner group..

“I can say that we are seeing the transfer of forces from Syria and Libya to the Donbass.. And these people are used as a mass against the Ukrainian army. Whatever their capabilities, they're just foot soldiers. They do not have armored vehicles and heavy weapons. It's just infantry,” said a European official.

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The publication notes that Russia has previously sent Syrians to Ukraine, but in small groups.. On March 31, several hundred mercenaries from Syria arrived on Ukrainian territory. Among them were Syrian army soldiers who collaborated with Russian forces in defending the regime of Bashar al-Assad.. Also last month, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that some 16,000 volunteers from the Middle East had volunteered to go to war against Ukraine.. Ukrainian intelligence reported that about the same number of fighters Russia agreed with the Libyan commander Khalif Haftar. The Wagner group, closely associated with Vladimir Putin's entourage, helps with the transportation of recruited mercenaries.

Earlier, the GUR reported that Syria allegedly failed a plan to recruit mercenaries.. Despite the promises of the Syrian leadership, the Russians did not receive a clear answer. Although today the head of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov said that in the Lugansk region, the Ukrainian military destroyed a detachment of Syrians and Libyans.