In the search for new fighters, Moscow is apparently also looking into Afghanistan. According to a report, the focus is on former commandos in particular. An insider warns that the elite warriors trained by the West could become a "game changer" in Ukraine.
According to a media report, Russia is trying to recruit fighters for the war against Ukraine in Afghanistan. As the US magazine "Foreign Policy" reports, former members of the Afghan special forces have received job offers to join the Russian troops.
The courted elite soldiers are former members of the Afghan National Army (ANA) command corps, who were trained by instructors from the US and Great Britain. After the Taliban took power in 2021, only a few soldiers from the force were able to flee the country, writes "Foreign Policy". Many of them are still in Afghanistan and are now unemployed.
Some of the former commandos tell the magazine that they were contacted via WhatsApp and Signal to join a Russian "foreign legion". The recruitment messages obtained by "Foreign Policy" use the same wording, which indicates a centrally organized action. The recipients are asked to inform other former comrades about the recruitments. Afghan television reports that recruits are also promised Russian citizenship for taking part in the war. A former high-ranking military man in the Afghan army suspects that the Russian mercenary group Wagner is behind the recruitment efforts.
The ex-elite fighters could become a "game changer" for Russia on the battlefield, a former high-ranking Afghan official is quoted as saying by "Foreign Policy". It is estimated that as many as 10,000 former soldiers could be amenable to Russian recruitment attempts, the report said.
"They have no land, no jobs, no future. They have nothing to lose," another military source told the magazine. "They're waiting for work for three to four dollars a day in Pakistan or Iran or ten dollars a day in Turkey, and when Wagner or some other intelligence agency comes up to a guy and offers $1,000 to be a fighter again, they're going to do it don't refuse them."
The source adds, "And if you find a guy to recruit, he can get half his old unit to join because they're like brothers - and pretty soon you've got a whole platoon."
