Foreign Policy: Russia recruiting Afghan commandos to fight in Ukraine

Members of Afghanistan’s elite National Army Commando Corps, who were abandoned by the United States and Western allies when the country fell to the Taliban last year, say they are being contacted with offers to join the Russian military to fight in Ukraine, Report informs referring to Foreign Policy.

Multiple Afghan military and security sources say the US-trained light infantry force, which fought alongside US and other allied special forces for almost 20 years, could make the difference Russia needs on the Ukrainian battlefield.

A former senior Afghan security official, who requested anonymity, said their integration into the Russian military “would be a game-changer” on the Ukrainian battlefield.

A former official, who was also an Afghan commando officer, said he believed Wagner was behind Russia’s recruitment of Afghanistan’s special forces. “I am telling you [the recruiters] are Wagner Group. They are gathering people from all over. The only entity that recruits foreign troops [for Russia] are Wagner Group, not their army. It’s not an assumption; it’s a known fact,” he said.