"Middle East Volunteers" in the Ukraine War!

Vladimir Putin, during a televised meeting of the Russian Security Council, instructed his Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, saying: “If you see that there are people who want (to fight) voluntarily, then you should help them move to the combat zones.” To which Shoigu responded by saying: “There are 16,000 Volunteers in the Middle East are ready to fight with Russian-backed forces in eastern Ukraine.”

There are reports indicating that Putin, and the parties involved in managing the affairs of the invasion of Ukraine, did not wait for this televised meeting to practically recruit fighters, and that the “Middle East” meant by the words is Syria specifically, as one of the Syrian websites indicated that Moscow opened the door to volunteering for six months. And that the “volunteering” in question is in exchange for paid military work, with salaries ranging between $200 and $300 a month.

In this way, Putin responds to his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky's announcement of the formation of a "Foreign Regional Defense Corps" to defend his country, and to news that some foreign volunteers have already arrived, from neighboring European countries, such as Poland, Latvia, Croatia and Denmark, as well as from Britain and the United States of America, And that some of them began combat missions against the Russian forces.

According to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, nearly 20,000 foreigners, mainly from European countries, have declared their willingness to volunteer “in order to help Ukraine fight Russia,” he said, and that the reason for this large number of people willing to fight is their “hatred of Russia.” And that "when they saw that the Ukrainians were fighting and that they did not surrender, they rushed to join the fight."

Contrary to Putin’s clear order to enlist “volunteers” issued by an unquestionable authority, things are not clear, for foreign volunteers for the war in favor of Ukraine, at least in some countries such as Britain, which witnessed the travel of war veterans to Ukraine, as well as the travel of military personnel In her army, they were absent without permission, to fight there.

After British Foreign Secretary Liz Terrace announced that her country would allow its citizens to participate, Prime Minister Boris Johnson stressed that British soldiers who travel to Ukraine to fight should "expect a court-martial" upon their return, because Britain, he said, "has laws Very clear", which was confirmed by the Chief of Staff of the British Armed Forces, Admiral Tony Radakin, who considered it "unlawful and unhelpful" for the British people to go to Ukraine to fight.

The two examples coming from Moscow and London present two different responses, mainly related to the fact that international and national law are two neglected elements in a country that falls under the absolute authority of one person, which cannot happen in a country where everyone is subject to the law, and its armies, agencies and officials are bound by the decisions of elected institutions , in which war decisions are subject to violent discussions, and the interventions of specialized committees that consult or interrogate army and security leaders, all under the scrutiny of the press and media, and the pressures of public opinion, whose institutions organize demonstrations, sit-ins and petitions, when they find some wars (as happened before the invasion of Iraq). popular rejection of it.

The Russian and Ukrainian examples also reveal important indications about this war. While demonstrations and arrests of demonstrators opposed to the war continue in Russian cities, the Ukrainians, who were faced with a major invasion of their country, called to take up arms, as happened with the writer and writer Irina Tsvila, who was killed along with her husband. During the face of the invasion (pictured above), as well as Pasha Lee, actor and TV presenter, who was also killed on March 6, Maxim Koroshkin, a playwright, Kira Ruddick, a former lawmaker, Serhi Pretola, actor and TV presenter, and many politicians and artists and educated.

The recruitment of Syrian “volunteers” to the Russian invasion (and others from the “Middle East” may actually add to them) sheds light on the vulnerability of using soldiers participating in the Syrian killing to serve an internal dictator, invading a country far from them, but this time to serve a dictator. Foreigner.