Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his Defence Minister to help would-be foreign fighters “move to the combat zone” in Ukraine and side with Moscow.
Key points:
- Putin approved the handing over of captured Western missile systems
- Russia’s Defence Minister says there are 16,000 volunteers in the Middle East ready to volunteer
- Russian strikes have hit near airports in western Ukraine
Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said Russia knew of “more than 16,000 applications” from would-be fighters for Moscow in the Middle East.
He said many of the applications were from people who helped Russia against the Islamic State group, according to a Kremlin transcript.
“[They want] to take part in what they consider a liberation movement,” Mr Shoigu said, on the side of Russia-backed separatist regions in eastern Ukraine.
Since 2015, Russian forces have backed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against various groups opposed to his rule, including Islamic State.
Mr Putin told Mr Shoigu that Russia should help would-be volunteers to “move to the combat zone” and contrasted them with what he called foreign “mercenaries” fighting for Ukraine.
He also approved the handing over captured Western missile systems to Russian-backed rebel fighters to use against Ukraine.
It came after Mr Shoigu proposed handing over American made anti-tank systems such as Javelin and Stinger to fighters from the rebel regions of Luhansk and Donetsk.
Russian strikes hit western Ukraine as offensive widens
Russian strikes have hit near airports in western Ukraine, as the military offensive widened.
Meanwhile, invading troops kept up pressure on the capital Kyiv and the besieged port city of Mariupol.
The air strikes on the Lutsk military airfield, about 100km from the Polish border, left two Ukrainian servicemen dead and six people wounded, according to the leader of the Volyn region, Yuriy Pohulyayko.
The strikes also targeted an airport near Ivano-Frankiivsk, about 130km south of Lviv.
Residents were ordered to shelters after an air raid alert, Mayor Ruslan Martsinkiv said.
International efforts to isolate and sanction Russia continue, particularly after a deadly air strike on a maternity hospital in the port city of Mariupol that Western and Ukrainian officials have called a war crime.
Ukrainian authorities announced plans for several evacuation and humanitarian aid delivery routes with the support of the Red Cross. Their top priority is to free people struggling to flee Mariupol.
Unbowed by the sanctions, Russia kept up its bombardment of the besieged southern seaport of Mariupol while Kyiv braced for an onslaught, its mayor boasting that the capital had become practically a fortress protected by armed civilians.
Three Russian air strikes also hit the eastern industrial city of Dnipro on early Friday, killing at least one person, according to Interior Ministry adviser Anton Heraschenko.
Meanwhile, Russian forces were pushing toward Kyiv from the north-west and east but were repulsed from Chernihiv as Ukrainian fighters regained control of Baklanova Muraviika, the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said in a statement.
AP/Reuters
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