Afghan commando unit trained by Britain 'approached by Russia over Whatsapp' to fight in Ukraine
26 October 2022, 15:12 | Updated: 26 October 2022, 15:16
Members of an elite unit of Afghan commandos trained by the British army have been approached by Russia to join the invasion of Ukraine, according to reports.
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Some 20,000-30,000 soldiers in the Afghanistan National Army Commando Corps have been sent messages over WhatsApp and Signal by Russian army recruiters, according to the Foreign Policy website, which has spoken to the troops.
And about 10,000 of them could reportedly be "receptive" to joining the invasion of Ukraine because they have been left "jobless" by the UK and US withdrawing from Afghanistan, and "have nothing to lose".
"The idea is try and get Putin to realise he can't win this war!"
They also now believe they have little chance of being resettled in Western countries and now have "no country", with Afghanistan ruled by the hostile Taliban. Some commandos have been resettled in the UK, and there were calls last year to reform them into a unit of the British army, similar to the Gurkhas.
The elite unit was trained by the US Navy Seals and the UK's SAS.
The organisation thought to be recruiting the Afghan soldiers is the Wagner Group, a shadowy private Russian military corps that works in tandem with the regular army.
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An Afghan military insider told Foreign Policy: "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."
Afghanistan has a bloody recent history with Russia. The Soviet Union waged a long war in the country in the 1980s that has been branded the 'Russian Vietnam'. As many as two million Afghans may have died in the nine-year war.
The insider said: “They’d be better used by Western allies to fight alongside Ukrainians.
"They don’t want to fight for the Russians; the Russians are the enemy. But what else are they going to do?”
Russia is also thought to be offering a much higher wage than the Afghan commandos could get elsewhere.
Another military source told the publication: "They are waiting for work for $3 to $4 a day in Pakistan or Iran or $10 a day in Turkey, and if Wagner or any other intelligence services come to a guy and offer $1,000 to be a fighting man again, they won’t reject it.
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"And if you find one guy to recruit, he can get half his old unit to join up because they are like brothers—and pretty soon, you’ve got a whole platoon."
