The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that the forces of the "25th Division" of the Syrian government forces, known as the "Quwat Al Nimr" (Tiger Forces), continued, for the third day, their "high-level exercises" in the regions of Idlib and the eastern countryside of Homs and Hama,"in preparation" to join the Russian forces in Ukraine, if requested.
The exercises included an airdrop of the squad members and the launch of training helicopters from Hmeimim Airport in Lattakia Governorate, western Syria. About 700 Syrian personnel and officers from the Russian forces participated in the exercises.
These exercises come after representatives of the pro-Russian military forces returned from a reconnaissance tour in Russia. Recently, the SOHR indicated that “participation to the Russian side is still limited to visiting representatives of the 25th Division, the Palestinian Al-Quds Brigade (affiliated with the Popular Front - General Command, led by the late Ahmed Jibril), the Baath Brigades and the Fifth Corps, which was founded by Moscow in the countryside of Daraa."
Russian President Vladimir Putin told Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu during a televised meeting of the Russian Security Council: "If you see that there are people who voluntarily want (to support the separatists in eastern Ukraine), then you should help them move to the combat zones."
A Kremlin spokesman said the Syrians could join the Russian forces fighting in Ukraine. Shoigu said 16,000 volunteers in the Middle East are ready to fight with the Russian-backed forces.
Mediators in Damascus and government areas had begun to promote the signing of contracts with young Syrians to fight alongside the Russian army in Ukraine. The list of "new candidates" included about 23,000 young men who had fought alongside government forces within the "Al-Bustan Association" militia, which was affiliated with Rami Makhlouf, the cousin of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. The contracts say: “Seven thousand dollars for each person for a period of seven months to work in Ukraine, and the first condition is not to return to Syria during the seven months.
In addition, “Sputnik” news agency reported days ago that 87 foreign militants in the “Guardians of Religion”, “Ansar al-Tawhid” and “Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham” terrorist organizations left Idlib countryside, northwest Syria, to Ukraine. The agency quoted private sources as saying that the militants who left for Ukraine were two batches, mostly Iraqis, Chechens, Tunisians and French. The sources revealed to the agency that all of those militants had belonged to ISIS before their integration into their new organizations, and that "at the combat level, they have high experience in guerrilla warfare."
On the other side, Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, the current front of Jabhat al-Nusra in Idlib, took over the city of Sarmada (5 km east of the Syrian-Turkish border), after which they entered Turkish territory, heading for Ukraine. The sources confirmed that Abu Muhammad Al-Julani, the leader of the “Al-Nusra” organization in Idlib, “personally held, over the past week, a series of meetings with leaders of several armed organizations inside a mosque in the center of Idlib city, during which he urged them to go to Ukraine against the Russian forces.” During his meetings, Al-Julani focused mostly on foreign militants in armed groups active in Idlib, stressing his refusal to leave local militants to enter in the current batches to fight in Ukraine along Russian forces.
Syrian fighters prepared to join both sides of Ukrainian war
