Kiev recruiting Islamic State terrorists from Syria, says Russian senior diplomat

The Kiev regime, backed by the West, is recruiting militants from Islamic State and other terrorist organization in the Middle East, who are ready to kill indiscriminately seeking to take revenge on the Russians, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov claims in an interview with  Russian News Agency TASS.

"A new thing is that the Kiev regime, backed by Western patrons and sponsors, is actively recruiting mercenaries from among terrorists who fought in the Middle East, first of all in Syria. These people already met with the Russian military there. And now, these morally abased Islamic State, al-Nusra (Jabhat al-Nusra) and other militants are itching to take revenge for the defeat by killing Russians," he noted, adding that they don't discriminate between Russians and Ukrainians.

"Both Russians and Ukrainian are 'Russians' for them, regardless of their ethnic or national identity," he explained.

According to the Russian senior diplomat, the Kiev regime is luring mercenaries from the Middle East with lavish payments for actions against Russia. "It means that cruel and blind weapons of murder seeking 'Russian blood' are being invited to Ukraine. They are promised to be paid such huge amounts of money that seem fantastic by the Middle Eastern standards, being ten-times as high as an 'average wage' of a militant in Syria or Libya," he noted.

He also said that Western mercenaries also join Ukrainian nationalist battalions. Many of them reached Ukraine far ahead the beginning of the Russian special operation and "have managed to make their bloody contribution to the numerous crimes against people in Donbass."

On 24 February, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation in response to a request for help by the heads of the Donbass republics. He stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories, but aimed to demilitarize and denazify the country.