INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Russia has drawn up lists of 40,000 fighters from Syrian army and allied militias to be put on standby for deployment in Ukraine, a war
monitor said Tuesday.The Kremlin said last week that volunteers, including from Syria, were welcome to fight alongside the Russian army in
Ukraine.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and activists said Russian officers, in coordination with the Syrian military and allied
militia, had set up registration offices in regime-held areas."More than 40,000 Syrians have registered to fight alongside Russia in Ukraine
so far," said Rami Abdel Rahman, who heads the UK-based monitor.Moscow is recruiting Syrians who acquired combat experience during Syria's
11-year-old civil war to bolster the invasion of Ukraine it launched on Feb
24.Russian officers deployed as part of the force Moscow sent to Syria in 2015 to support Damascus had approved 22,000 of them, Abdel Rahman
said.Those fighters are either combatants drawn from the army or pro-regime militias who have experience in street warfare and received
Russian training.In a country where soldiers earn between $15 and $35 per month, Russia has promised them a salary of $1,100 to fight in
Ukraine, the Observatory reported.They are also entitled to $7,700 in compensation for injuries and their families to $16,500 if they are
killed in combat.Another 18,000 men had registered with Syria's ruling Baath party and would be screened by the Wagner Group, a Russian
private military contractor with links to the Kremlin, the monitor said.Misinformation about Syrian recruits in Ukraine has been spreading
online.Last week, pictures were shared of a Syrian soldier they said had died in Ukraine, but it later appeared he had been killed in his
homeland in 2015.Lack of jobsThe Observatory said it had no confirmed reports yet of any Syrian recruits leaving for Ukraine.Abdel Rahman
said Russia had drawn Syrian army recruits from the 25th Special Mission Forces Division, once better known as the "Tiger Forces," and from
the Russian-run 5th Division.Fighters from the Palestinian Liwaa al-Quds group and the Baath party's military branch had also enlisted.A
Syrian government representative denied the recruitment drive."Until now no names have been written down, no soldiers registered in any
mercenaries have already fought on opposing sides of foreign conflicts, in Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh.More than a decade of war has pushed
90% of the population into poverty, a factor Syrians for Truth and Justice said was a key factor in the recruitment.A Syrian soldier told
the activist group this month that he enlisted to fight in Ukraine because he could not find a job after his military service."The situation
There is no electricity, heating, or household gas," he said, adding he had registered at an air force intelligence office near Damascus.'A
few hundred dollars'Regime-allied forces opened recruitment centers in the eastern towns of Al-Mayadeen and Deir Ezzor, according to Omar
Abu Layla, who heads the Deir Ezzor 24 media outlet."Wagner started the whole thing in Deir Ezzor; only dozens have registered so far," he
said."In a country that lacks basic necessities, some have no choice but to fight..
for a few hundred dollars."Turkey-backed rebels in northern Syria are also gearing up to send fighters on the opposing side.An AFP reporter
in northern Syria said the factions preparing for Ukraine include the Sultan Murad, Sulaiman Shah and Hamza divisions, all of which had
previously sent hundreds of fighters to fight in Libya and Azerbaijan.While money is the main driver for Syrian mercenaries on both sides of
the conflict, rights groups said Ankara's proxies often exploited fighters and withheld wages.One fighter told AFP he was promised $3,000 to
I will go and never come back
From Ukraine, I plan to go to Europe," another said.
