Syrian and Egyptian youths were tricked into enlisting in the Russian army, being sent to the front in Ukraine with minimal training. Behind the scheme is Polina Alexandrovna Azarnih, a former teacher from Russia who uses Telegram to recruit them.
A former teacher from Russia, Polina Alexandrovna Azarnih, who uses a Telegram channel to lure young people from poor countries to participate in Putin’s war, has become “one of the most important recruiters” for the Russian army.
“This woman is a scammer”
Omar, a 26-year-old Syrian construction worker, tells how he ended up on the front line with just 10 days of military training.
“We were deceived, this woman is a scammer and a liar. We are 100% going to die here. Many injuries, many explosions, many bombings. If you don’t die from the explosions, you will die from the debris falling on you.”, he told BBC.
The woman took revenge on Omar and filmed herself burning his passport. She then sent him the video, telling him: “Your Syrian passport burns well.”
Omar said he tried to refuse to take part in the mission in Ukraine, but his commanders threatened to kill him. The contracts were in Russian, a language none of the men understood.
“We were deceived… this woman is a scammer and a liar”, he said.
Omar claims that Azarnih promised the young men that if they paid $3,000, they would be assigned non-combat roles, but in reality they were sent to the front.
“Bodies everywhere, I stepped on bodies, God forgive me. If someone dies, I saw with my own eyes, they put him in a garbage bag and throw it next to a tree.”, he confessed to BBC.
“Recruited from university”
The Telegram channel of the former Russian teacher has 21,000 subscribers. Over 490 such invitations have been identified in the past year sent to men from countries such as Yemen, Syria, Egypt, Morocco, Iraq, Ivory Coast, and Nigeria.
Details, HERE
