Russia's Mercenary Troops

Such is the desperation of Russia's need for more troops to fight on the front line in the Ukraine ...

Russian Tanks Have Been Mauled By the
Javelin and NLAW Anti-tank Weapons.

... after the mauling its conscripted troops and armoured vehicles have taken, from the highly motivated Ukrainian army and volunteer fighters, that it has been actively recruiting mercenary fighters from abroad, as well as the shadowy Wagner Group (who already fight in Eastern Ukraine and Libya on Russia's behalf).

Apparently, NGO's have reported that Russia has opened around 14 recruitment centres across Syria, and some more in Libya, as it recruits more for the infamous Wagner Group (allegedly the new units being recruited are no longer referred to as 'Wagner', but given new names - such as The Hawk), and for its Golden Horde of Muslim fighters from around Russia's Muslim minorities, in Chechnya, Dagestan, Ingushetia and other border regions.

Wagner Group - Putin's Private Army?

The Kremlin has now openly admitted that is seeking to recruit  mercenary troops from both Libya and Syria. The money offered varies, but seems to be around US $1,000 (£760) a month, and that it has accelerated this recruitment programme. It has also advertised on  Russian job websites for former Russian army veterans to rejoin the military at officer ranks, presumably to command the newly formed mercenary battalions.

The Arab Volunteers Are
Putin's New Golden Horde

Reports suggest that so far at least 200 Syrian soldiers have volunteered to fight in the Ukraine for Russia (Russia says 16,000 recruited from the Middle East), with sums of up to £5,000 a month offered to those who are experienced soldiers, and are willing to fight on the front line, with a £37,000 in death benefits for their families if they are killed in the fighting. At least one Syrian soldier who’s volunteered to fight, was reported by the BBC as saying that he believed Russia was carrying out a massacre in Ukraine, but that it was also helping poor Syrians who couldn’t afford to eat back home.

But this isn't the only Muslim troops being used by Russia in the war in the Ukraine. 20 per cent of Russia's populations are from ethnic minority backgrounds and are largely Islamic e.g. The Astrakhan region in southern Russia is 68 per cent ethnic Russian, but around 15 per cent are Muslim Kazakh's, yet examination of a list of the Russian casualties in the Ukraine war, suggest that 85 per cent of the listed fatalities from the region were Kazakh's. A disproportionate number.

Ethnic Troops Often Have White
Bands Denoting Non Regular Troops.

Reports by both media and Ukrainians from the battlefields of Ukraine, have indicated that many of 'Russian' dead, that are just left behind unburied and unclaimed on the frontline, are seen to be wearing white bands on their uniforms, denoting non-regular Russian units. These units largely consist of ethnic minorities such as the Muslim republics of Dagestan or Ingushetia or far-flung locations like Buryatia, whose inhabitants are of Mongolian origin.

Kamil Guleev, a Russian military expert at the Washington-based Wilson Centre think-tank has reported that "Judging from the [Russian] casualty lists, minorities are wildly over-represented on the battlefields as cannon fodder.” .... While a separate analysis of posts on the Telegram social media platform announcing the death or capture of more than 100 'Russian' servicemen, found that actually just over 30 per cent were non-Slav Russians, with many having Muslim names.

Amongst the wounded i.e those who were obviously combat area troops, a study by one expert has indicated, that more than half of the names of 'Russian' wounded being treated in a hospital in Rostov, in southern Russia, bore a number of common Dagestani names, such as “Magomed”, or Muhammed.

Traditionally Russia or the USSR has put people from rural areas, ethnic minorities, and non-Russian republics, into its combat units as frontline troops. They were often used as shock troops in WWII, where they were driven by KGB soldiers, to launch mass wave attacks against German defences, with huge causalities. 

A Kazakh human rights activist has told UK press that “Compulsory participation in war by ethnic minorities in territories occupied by Russia has been a common method used by the rulers of Russia. Even during the Second World War, they enlisted large numbers of Kazakhs and even if they were crushed by German tanks they could not retreat because they would be slaughtered by the Russian soldiers behind them". It appears that not much has changed in the decades since.

This disproportionate number of ethnic minority troops in the Russian army is because extreme poverty makes the armed forces seem an attractive way out of absolute poverty for many, and because they are less likely to resist the brutal processing they receive than those from cities and ethnic Russian areas, who often have political connections that allow them to dodge being drafted. 

However this reliance by Russia on religious and ethnic minorities in the front line troops, means that they are always over-represented among those who fight and die .... The other three advantages of these mercenaries, rural and minority troops being on the front line of combat are that:

1. It keeps the ethnic Russian casualty rates down,
2. The authorities are able to suppress media reports of causality rates ... and finally
3. They can blame them for any war crimes, if they ever go to trial (very unlikely).
   

Some Killings Of Civilian Have Been Covered Up

So Syrian and Libyan mercenaries be warned, your life expectancy is likely to be short, and you may face trial for war crimes in the future.