WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is recruiting militants from the Daesh terrorist group, who are being held in Kurdish-controlled prisons and camps in Syria, to send them further to Ukraine, an informed source told Sputnik.
“According to available information, the U.S. CIA is actively recruiting Daesh militants, held in Kurdish-controlled prisons and camps in northeast Syria. The Americans are transferring terrorists to their facilities under the pretext of conducting additional investigation with the prospect of [militants’] transfers to Europe,” the source said.
To date, the Kurds have already handed over to the United States several Daesh high-ranking leaders and about 90 militants, mainly from among citizens of the EU countries, the source added.
For now, the U.S. plans to deploy the militants on the territory of its al-Tanf military base located in southern Syria.
“In the future, Washington intends to send these militants to Ukraine so that they take part in hostilities against the Russian armed forces,” the source stated.
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has stated Western countries are reluctant to answer Moscow’s questions about their mercenaries in Ukraine.
In Mid-June, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Igor Konashenkov said mercenaries and military specialists from 64 countries are involved in hostilities in Ukraine, adding, about 2,000 foreign mercenaries are known to have been killed.
Russia attacked its neighboring state in late February, following Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, first signed in 2014, and Moscow’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German- and French-brokered protocol was designed to give the breakaway regions special status within the Ukrainian state.
The Kremlin has since demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the U.S.-led NATO military bloc.