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Russia’s armed forces have recruited hundreds of Yemeni men to fight in Ukraine, brought by a shadowy trafficking operation that highlights the growing links between Moscow and the Houthi rebel group.
Yemeni recruits who travelled to Russia told the Financial Times they were promised high salaried employment and even Russian citizenship. When they arrived with the help of a Houthi-linked company, they were then forcibly inducted into the Russian army and sent to the front lines in Ukraine.
The appearance of the ragtag group of — mainly involuntary — Yemeni mercenaries in Ukraine shows how the conflict is increasingly sucking in soldiers from abroad as casualties rise and the Kremlin tries to avoid a full mobilisation. They include mercenaries fromNepal and India and some 12,000 North Korean regular army troops who arrived to take part in combat against Ukrainian forces in the Russian province of Kursk.
The Yemeni recruitment effort also underscores how Russia, driven by its confrontation with the west, is growing closer to Iran and allied militant groups in the Middle East. The Houthis, a militant group backed by Tehran, disrupted global supply chains with a missile campaign targeting shipping in the Red Sea after the start of the war in Gaza last year.
https://www.ft.com/content/da966006-88e5-4c25-9075-7c07c4702e06
Yemeni recruits who travelled to Russia told the Financial Times they were promised high salaried employment and even Russian citizenship. When they arrived with the help of a Houthi-linked company, they were then forcibly inducted into the Russian army and sent to the front lines in Ukraine.
The appearance of the ragtag group of — mainly involuntary — Yemeni mercenaries in Ukraine shows how the conflict is increasingly sucking in soldiers from abroad as casualties rise and the Kremlin tries to avoid a full mobilisation. They include mercenaries fromNepal and India and some 12,000 North Korean regular army troops who arrived to take part in combat against Ukrainian forces in the Russian province of Kursk.
The Yemeni recruitment effort also underscores how Russia, driven by its confrontation with the west, is growing closer to Iran and allied militant groups in the Middle East. The Houthis, a militant group backed by Tehran, disrupted global supply chains with a missile campaign targeting shipping in the Red Sea after the start of the war in Gaza last year.
https://www.ft.com/content/da966006-88e5-4c25-9075-7c07c4702e06
