After North Korean, Indian and even Nepalese soldiers sent to the front in Ukraine by Russia, here is now almost irrefutable proof and testimony that Yemenis are fighting in Russian ranks. THE Financial Times revealed this Sunday, November 24, that several hundred men from Yemen had been recruited against their will to join the Russian army, and serve as cannon fodder for the invasion of Ukraine launched by Vladimir Putin.
This operation, which the Financial Times does not hesitate to describe it as “human trafficking”, is based on a “lie”, taking advantage of the misery of many Yemenis. The British daily thus collected the testimony of several recruits from Yemen and having served in the Russian ranks. While they were promised a well-paid job in their country in “security” or “engineering”, and even Russian citizenship, the reality becomes quite different once they set foot on Russian soil. With forceful enlistment in Vladimir Putin’s army, using particularly brutal methods.
“I signed because I was afraid”
A man, who arrived in Russia on September 18, told the FT how he found himself with a gun pointed at his head when he refused to sign the contract for enlistment in the Moscow army, written in Russian and which he obviously could not read. “I signed because I was afraid,” he says, then claiming to have been transferred to a military base near Rostov, very close to the Ukrainian border. Still according to this man, finally authorized to leave Russia at the beginning of November, the majority of Yemenis who arrived in Russia, most of them without any combat experience, have since died.
The chances of survival of these soldiers, sent to the front without any winter clothing, with rudimentary military training and on a war terrain that they know nothing about, are obviously minimal. But these testimonies show the absolute necessity of Vladimir Putin to fill the ranks of his army to carry out the most risky tasks, while the number of victims is only increasing and the Kremlin seeks to avoid an unpopular general mobilization. Even if it means using all possible methods to deceive and recruit soldiers abroad, particularly with the worrying arrival of several thousand North Korean soldiers.
Closeness between Russia and the Houthi rebels
This operation is far from being clandestinely organized by a few anonymous traffickers. Behind the company – domiciled in Oman – through which future fighters are poached to send to Ukraine, we find a certain Abdulwali Abdo Hassan al-Jabri, a leading Yemeni politician, allied to the Houthi regime. Recruitment would have started at the beginning of July, says the Financial Times.
This whole system also testifies to the ever closer rapprochement between Russia and Iran. The Houthi rebels, very close to Tehran, have become known throughout the world for their attacks in the Red Sea against commercial ships in the name of their support for Hamas. Mohammed al Bukhaiti, member of the political bureau of the Shiite group, told the independent Russian media in early November Meduza that the Houthis were in “permanent contact” with Russian leaders “to develop relations in all areas, including the economy, politics and the military.”
This collaboration is also reciprocal. In exchange for these soldiers recruited to be sent to the Ukrainian front, Russia would be in discussions with the Yemeni group for arms transfers to the Middle East. And this despite the fact that Moscow has already been shown to have helped the Houthis attack Western ships by providing them with satellite data. “We know that there are Russian personnel in Sanaa (Editor’s note: the capital of Yemen, controlled by the Shiite group) who are helping to deepen this dialogue. […] The type of weapons in question is very worrying, and would allow the Houthis to better target ships in the Red Sea and perhaps beyond,” he said. FT the United States special envoy to Yemen, Tim Lenderking. While a large number of sophisticated Russian weapons are also in the hands of Hezbollah in Lebanon, there is no doubt that Russia is also playing its role in the escalation in the Middle East.