A Kyiv official on Wednesday confirmed the Ukrainian Armed Forces recently created a battalion made up of Russian citizens who traveled to Ukraine to fight against Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces.
The confirmation followed a Tuesday story published in Bloomberg about the so-called "Siberian Battalion." The story detailed how the Sibir (Siberia) battalion brought together "dozens" of Russians as well as people from ethnic minorities in Russia who are opposed to the invasion Putin launched on Ukraine in February 2022.
Volunteer groups of Russian soldiers, such as the Freedom of Russia Legion and the Russian Volunteer Corps, have already been fighting in Ukraine alongside Kyiv's forces, but the Siberian Battalion is the first known unit of Russians that is part of the formal Ukrainian army.
"We can confirm the information about the creation of the Siberian battalion, which operates in the ranks of the International Legion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine," Andriy Yusov, representative of Ukraine's Defense Ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR), told the Kyiv Post.
The Siberia Battalion is said to be a new entity that will soon be used in combat. The members of the battalion are also all reportedly volunteers who were not recruited from prisoners of war taken hostage by Ukraine.
Along with citizens from Russia, the battalion also features ethnic minorities such as Yakuts and Buryats from Eastern Siberia, according to Bloomberg.
Yusov said all the members of the Siberian Battalion have signed military contracts and have undergone training. The troops were also assigned army call signs to protect their identities.
The military official added that Ukraine plans to keep recruiting Russians to form more battalions.
"Ukraine will continue to expand the number of such units, which consist of the peoples of the Russian Federation and express a desire to defend Ukraine on the one hand, and on the other hand, to protect their peoples and small homelands from Russian imperial oppression," Yusov said to the Kyiv Post.
A separate story published by Reuters on Tuesday featured interviews with members of the Siberian Battalion talking about their motivation for fighting against the Kremlin's forces.
"I don't want to have any part in those terrible crimes that my country did within its own borders, and what is more terrifying, the massed firepower that is now killing thousands of Ukrainians. Without pity for women, children or the elderly," a soldier from the Moscow region using the call sign Gandhi told Reuters.
Russia had denied that its military targets civilians in Ukraine.
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About the writer
Jon Jackson is an Associate Editor at Newsweek based in New York. His focus is on reporting on the Ukraine ... Read more
