Russia will deploy violent soccer fans, known as “hooligans” or “ultras,” to Ukraine in an effort to bolster troop numbers as the conflict enters its 11th month.
“What is very clear is that Putin will not end this war any time soon,” Rebekah Koffler, president of Doctrine & Strategy Consulting and a former DIA intelligence officer, told Fox News Digital. “He will use hooligans, prisoners, and any sort of thug to continue flowing fighters into Ukraine, to keep it from becoming part of NATO. The mission is this important.”
“[Russian President Vladimir] Putin and his regime view the outcome of this war as existential for Russia and for themselves personally,” she added.
News broke last month that Putin had looked to recruit extremist Russian football fans to fight in Ukraine as part of the 106th Airborne Division and the Vostok battalion, The Daily Mail reported.
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The unit, known as “Espanola,” includes recruits from club supporter groups including CSKA Moscow, Zenit St. Petersburg, Spartak Moscow and Lokomotiv Moscow, according to the Daily Mirror.
Fans of Russia support their team during Euro 2016 Group B football match between England and Russia at Stade Velodrome in Marseille, France on June 11, 2016.
(Photo by Burak Akbulut/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
Stanislav “Spaniard” Orlov, a commanding officer of the hooligans, said that the death of one of their members in combat has already spurred the others to “stay and fight,” declaring, “Our comrade died here, and now this is our place.”
“The combat part of the detachment are people who have military experience or have served in the army,” Orlov explained to Russian news outlet Vechernyaya Moskva. “After a short training course, they directly fight in the zone of the special operation. Russian fans form small infantry reconnaissance and assault groups or send them to sapper and engineering works.”
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