In the Armed Forces, the Siberia battalion was formed, which consists entirely of citizens of the Russian Federation
Ukraine has formed a battalion consisting entirely of Russians who want to fight against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
This is reported by Bloomberg.
According to officials at their training camp, the Siberia battalion has brought together dozens of Russians and representatives of Russia’s ethnic minorities who have come through third countries to join the Ukrainian army.
Unlike volunteer groups like Russia’s Legion of Freedom, which have declared their support for Ukraine, these soldiers are part of the regular Ukrainian army and expect to be sent into battle very soon.
Among them are representatives of such peoples as the Yakuts and Buryats, who live in Russia’s vast East Siberian region, who have said they want independence from Russia and view Ukraine’s victory in the war as a step toward that goal.
Ukrainian officials have said that they expect to attract more Russian citizens, especially representatives of national minorities, to participate in the war against Russia.
It is noted that the members of the Siberian battalion passed a thorough check for loyalty to Ukraine, and then signed a military contract, adopting army callsigns to protect their identity.
– All members of the 60-person battalion are volunteers, and none of them are recruited from among Russian prisoners of war, – said a representative of the Ukrainian army.
Ukraine’s military plans to speed up background checks, which could take up to a year, to encourage more Russians to join their ranks, he added.
Earlier, the representative of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense Andriy Yusov stated that the restoration of the Russian army to the state it was in before the start of a full-scale invasion could take from 10 to 20 years.
