Ex-Afghan special forces fighting in Ukraine: Russian Foreign Ministry

• 

The Russian presidential envoy for Afghanistan and the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Second Asian Department Zamir Kabulov said, as quoted by Sputnik, that Former Afghan Special Forces fighters have fought on Kiev's side in Ukraine.

In mid-March, a source told Sputnik that the US was preparing to send former Afghan army soldiers to Ukraine.

"These special forces, some of them join Islamic State [ISIS] and fight in Iraq and Syria. It is very predictable, in my opinion. We have already discussed that this is a repeat of the Iraq scenario, which resulted in the IS emergence. And the other part of these former special forces apparently were promised money as mercenaries because they need to make a living, so they join the Ukrainian Nazis. But this does not depend on the Taliban in any way," Kabulov said.

He cited a Kyrgyz delegate as saying at a recent Afghanistan conference in Uzbekistan that approximately 110,000 former Afghan Special Forces had fled the country and were awaiting entry into the United States.

"Apparently, no one is going to give them any permission, which is the absolutely rude manner of the Americans," Kabulov said.

The Taliban have promised not to send militants or terrorists to Ukraine, according to the Russian diplomat.

Commenting on whether Moscow contacted the movement on the matter, Kabulov said, "The Taliban have guaranteed that they will not allow [this] within their real capabilities. And they are not talking with a forked tongue."

This is happening one year after the hasty withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and the collapse of the US-backed government. The 20 years of US war caused economic chaos and food shortages, bringing the country to the brink of a humanitarian crisis. Thousands of Afghans were forced to flee the crisis-stricken country.

Today, life in Afghanistan is difficult and precarious for almost everyone. More than half of this troubled country's 40 million people are suffering from severe malnutrition and grinding poverty, and 90% are food insecure.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, the US is fueling the war by sending hundreds of millions of dollars worth of weapons not to mention facilitating the way for mercenaries to fight in Ukraine.

Since February 24, the United States has committed $5.6 billion in military supplies to Ukraine, ranging from heavy artillery to tactical drones to armored vehicles.

The latest batch of weapons announced is worth $350 million, as per the Pentagon. It consists of 18 155 mm howitzers, 36,000 rounds of 155 mm ammunition, 18 tactical vehicles for towing 155 mm howitzers, ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HMARS, and four tactical vehicles for equipment and spare parts recovery.

In addition, the Pentagon will provide two Harpoon coastal defense systems, thousands of secure radios, night vision, and thermal devices, as well as funding for training and maintenance. The total value of this package is $650 million.

Meanwhile, a senior US defense official warned that hundreds of millions of dollars worth of US weapons sent to Ukraine might “drop into a big black hole, and you have almost no sense of it at all after a short period of time."

Furthermore, current US officials and defense analysts agree that the risk is that some of those weapons will end up in the hands of mercenaries.

However, the story is far from over. Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform reported in March that 3,000 US “volunteers” were ready to fight in Ukraine.

The agency quoted the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ press service via Telegram as saying that "the volunteers are ready to repel Russia as part of an international battalion."

Among the US volunteers are army veterans "with combat experience gained in Iraq and other hotspots around the world.

Read more: US attracts IS mercenaries to fight in Ukraine: Russia's SVR