On Thursday Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov issued a bombshell of an accusation against Ukraine. He said that Ukrainian intelligence agents are "actively recruiting Islamist militants" in northwest Syria, the Sahara, as well as in the Sahel regions of Africa "to carry out terrorist operations."
"Now there is information that Ukrainian envoys, those of Ukrainian intelligence, are in the Idlib de-escalation zone on the territory of Syria, where they are recruiting militants of Jabhat al-Nusra, now called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)," the foreign minister said.
Lavrov alleged that the al-Qaeda linked militants are being recruited for "new hideous operations planned." The fresh comments came during a conference involving the heads of Russian diplomatic missions abroad, held in Moscow.
"They are already looking further south, to the Sahara–Sahel zone of the African continent, where they are also carrying out terrorist attacks on government troops of numerous countries together with recruited extremists," Lavrov alleged of Ukrainian intelligence.
In the remarks the top Russian diplomat highlighted the Moscow Crocus City Hall terror attack which killed at least 145 people on March 22 of this year. At the time Russian authorities alleged that the four Islamic militant attackers had links to Ukraine and that some of their associates involved in the plotting tried to escape across the border. The attack was later claimed by ISIS.
"The investigation is still underway, but it has already revealed evidence that the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry was involved in the preparation of the terrorist attack. In particular, the escape routes of the killers across the Russian–Ukrainian border were planned in detail," Lavrov continued.
So it seems that Lavrov is accusing Ukraine of plotting more sabotage and terror attacks in side Russia by recruiting and paying Syrian and North African Islamist mercenaries.
The specific accusation regarding Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) is interesting, given that the Syrian AQ group has long held Idlib province in northwest Syria. It has for years been fighting the Syrian and Russian militaries, and in 2015 Islamic fighters had first seized Idlib with the support of a NATO operations room in southern Turkey.
The only additional significant source claiming that Ukraine is tapping Syrian mercenaries is Turkish newspaper Aydinlik. The newspaper reported this week that Ukrainian government officials recently traveled to Idlib and met with members of Syria's HTS to discuss a "drones-for-fighters" deal. "A delegation from Ukraine went to Idlib in recent months and met with the leaders of the terrorist organization," the newspaper claimed of a meeting reportedly held in June.
However, there's been no specific proof. But it would perhaps be an interesting way for Ukraine to solve its manpower problems. Syrian anti-Assad militants have also been known to travel to north Africa in support of Turkish defense firms. Turkey has long overseen what's essentially a 'jihadist highway' in and out of Syria, or at other times "looked the other way". It all started in and after 2011, amid US-Gulf efforts to oust Bashar al-Assad.
