The Russian Defense Minister confirmed that 16,000 volunteers are ready to fight in the breakaway region of Donbass in Ukraine.
On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with the Russian National Security Council to discuss the military operation led by his country in Ukraine.
During the meeting, Putin confirmed that volunteers willing to fight would be allowed to go to Ukraine, at a time when Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu confirmed that "16,000 volunteers from the Middle East are ready to fight in the separatist region of Donbas" in Ukraine.
According to Russian media, Putin ordered to facilitate the dispatch of "volunteer" fighters from the Middle East to Ukraine to fight.
He added that this step is justified because "the godfathers of the Western Ukrainian regime do not even manage what they are doing" and openly collect "mercenaries from all over the world to send them to Ukraine."
Ukraine has announced the formation of a corps of foreign volunteers integrated into its armed forces to fight Russian forces on its territory.
In a related context, Putin expressed his support for Shoigu's proposal to transfer weapons to separatists in the Donbas region of Ukraine. Putin agreed to hand over recently captured missile systems to Russian-backed separatists.
The Russian defense minister had proposed handing over US-made anti-tank systems such as the Javelin and the Stinger to separatist fighters in the Lugansk and Donetsk regions. Putin said during a meeting of the Russian Security Council that he supported such an idea.
In another context, the Russian Defense Minister said that his country intends to strengthen its western borders with new systems, saying that "the General Staff is working on developing a plan to strengthen our western borders... through new and modern systems and the redeployment of military units."
Putin also asked Shoigu to propose military redeployments on Russia's western borders, in response to those carried out by NATO in Eastern Europe.
In another context, and during a subsequent meeting with the Belarusian president, Putin confirmed that "there is a positive shift in negotiations with Ukraine," as he said, commenting on the sanctions imposed by the West on Russia: "The Soviet Union has previously coexisted with sanctions for a long time."
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- Agencies