Desperate Putin begins recruiting Yemen mercenaries to struggle in Ukraine: Hundreds ‘lured to Russia with excessive salaries earlier than being despatched to Ukraine frontline’
Russia has recruited hundreds of Yemeni mercenaries to reinforce its lines in Ukraine under the false promise of high salaried work and Russian citizenship, sources claim.
Recruits say they have already been sent to the frontlines after being inducted into the Russian military with help from a Houthi-linked company.
Many of those heading to Russia claim to have been press-ganged into the military under the promise of a well-paid career away from the frontlines, recruits told the FT.
Yemenis expecting substantial salaries and safe employment in manufacturing roles say they were threatened and taken to Ukraine with little training after arriving.
Russia has, in recent weeks, looked to avoid full mobilisation by drawing on support from some 12,000 North Korean troops and mercenaries from India and Nepal.
Houthi supporters chant slogans while holding their weapons up during an anti-US and anti-Israel protest in Sana’a, Yemen, on November 22
Ukrainian servicemen fire a 2s5 ‘Hyacinth-s’ self-propelled howitzer towards Russian troops on the frontline, near Chasiv Yar on November 18
The Russian army’s multiple rocket launcher Solntsepyok fires towards Ukrainian positions in the border area of Kursk region, Russia, released November 13
Vladimir Putin holds a meeting with the Defense Ministry leadership and representatives of the defense industry on November 22, in Moscow
The recruitment of Yemeni soldiers ‘appears to have begun as early as July’, the FT reports, months before Kim Jong Un sent his forces to buttress Putin‘s lines.
One recruit estimated that he was part of one group of some 200 Yemenis conscripted to fight in Russia in September.
Some say they were tricked into joining after signing enlistment contracts they could not read, and were told they would be working in lucrative fields like engineering.
When they arrived in Russia, a recruit said a man fired a pistol above their heads and ordered them to sign a contract before they were taken to Ukraine on buses.
The recruit who joined in September said he was only hoping to earn enough money to finish his studies before arriving in Ukraine and dressed in Russian uniform.
Recruits told the Financial Times they had come under bombardment, had no rest time and that one had ended up in hospital after trying to take their own life.
Contracts seen by the FT reference a company in Oman founded by Houthi politician Abdulwali Abdo Hassan al-Jabri.
Officials have suggested for months that Yemeni Houthi rebels have been working with Russia to trade weapons and data driving their Red Sea operations.
Deals have reportedly been overseen by Iranian agents, allegedly helping Russia negotiate the sale of missiles and satellite data to the Houthis.
Information was passed on from Russia to members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps embedded within the Houthi ranks, a source told the WSJ last month.
A report citing western officials suggested Russia has sought to intentionally destabilise the region by backing the Houthis to undermine Western allies.
The Houthis have targeted more than 100 vessels since November in solidarity with Hamas over the ongoing war between Israel and Gaza, disrupting trade.
One motivation for Moscow to arm the Houthis, well-placed sources told Reuters last month, was the looming threat of the US allowing Ukraine to use long-range missiles to strike deep into Russian territory.
The US ceded permission last week as President Joe Biden looks to give Ukraine the upper hand before leaving office to be replaced by Donald Trump next year.
Western and regional sources with knowledge of the issue said at the time that Russia was yet to decide whether to send Yakhont missiles to the Houthis.
Experts said the missiles would allow them to more accurately strike commercial vessels and increase the threat to the U.S. and European warships defending them.
Police evacuate a family from the village of Yelyzavetivka in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, in the Kurakhove direction on November 14
The oil tanker Cordelia Moon bursts into flames after being hit by a missile in the Red Sea, off Yemen’s Red Sea Port of Hodeida, in this screengrab from a video released on October 1, 2024
A child gestures as protesters, mainly Houthi supporters, rally to show support to Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, in Sanaa, Yemen, November 22, 2024
Smoke rising from the Sounion following Yemen’s Houthis attacks, in the Red Sea, August 29
The Yakhont is considered one of the world’s most advanced anti-ship missiles, designed to skim the sea’s surface to avoid detection at more than twice the speed of sound, making it difficult to intercept.
Edmund Fitton-Brown, Senior Advisor to the Counter Extremism Project and former Ambassador of the UK to Yemen, told MailOnline that the claims were ‘very concerning if true’ and appear ‘credible’ so far as Iran and Russia are ‘locked in a rejectionist-disruptor embrace’.
‘One key Russian objective is to show US weakness and thus make Trump’s reelection more likely,’ he said. ‘That potential strategic gain overrides all other considerations.’
‘Any successful upgrade of Houthi capabilities would also likely draw a kinetic Israeli response,’ Mr Fitton-Brown warned, adding that such a deal could ‘draw clearer lines of alliances’ between an axis of Russia and Iran against the West.
