Russia recruits Serbs to fight in Ukraine, it is intended to create a battalion of them

After a few days in the Russian capital, Branko, along with three other Serb nationals, was taken to a military recruitment center in Krasnogorsk, a city on the outskirts of Moscow, where the group signed a contract with the Russian military.

“Everything happened very quickly; In one day I became a soldier for Russia … Now I’m waiting to be sent to Ukraine,” Branko said in a Telegram text exchange, requesting anonymity so he could speak freely, The Guardian writes.

Branko, who is not his real name, has been part of Moscow’s recent efforts to recruit Serbs to fight for the Russian army in Ukraine as the Kremlin seeks to replenish its forces depleted by 18 months of fighting.

Based on reports from two Serb fighters who had traveled to Russia, as well as a leaked list of drafted Serbs, the Guardian noted that Russian officials appear to have made plans to recruit hundreds of Serb nationals to bolster the army.

Since the war in Ukraine began, Russia has enacted a series of laws to encourage foreign citizens to join its ranks. Vladimir Putin told a security meeting shortly after his troops invaded Ukraine that the Kremlin should help people from abroad who plan to fight on Russia’s side.

Since then, the Russian leader has signed an order reducing the minimum period of military service for foreigners from five to one year and offered an accelerated recruitment drive for non-Russian fighters.

Serbia, an EU candidate since 2012, has struggled to balance historically close ties with Russia with aspirations for integration with Europe, and tensions have been exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, as many Serbs sympathize with Russia.

Pro-Russian sentiment is particularly pronounced among Serbia’s ultranationalist groups, which have organized a series of pro-Moscow rallies since the war in Ukraine began.

Although the number of Serbs recruited so far does not appear to be large enough to make a noticeable difference on the battlefield, Moscow’s actions risk straining its relations with Serbia, one of its few allies in the West.

The ringleader of the Serb recruitment plot, a plan apparently hatched over the summer, was Davor Savicic, a Serb who had fought for years as part of Russia’s initial invasion of Ukraine in 2014.

Savicic has also been linked to the paramilitary group Wagner. The Fontanka newspaper reported that he had previously fought with Wagner in Syria. Two sources close to the paramilitary group confirmed Savicic’s previous involvement to the Guardian.

In an Aug. 21 interview with prominent pro-Kremlin anchor Vladimir Solovyov, Savicic spoke candidly about how he was put in charge of a unit of Serb nationals in Ukraine.

“Now we officially sign a contract with the Russian Defense Ministry,” he said. “Soldiers go through the military registration and registration office in Krasnogorsk,” he said, describing details that matched Branko’s account of recruitment. “After additional training, the boys are sent toward Luhansk,” Savicic added, referring to the eastern region of Ukraine that is one of Putin’s main targets.

Sitting next to Savicic during the interview was another Serb, Deyan Beric, who told Solovyov that the Serb fighters were registered as part of Russia’s 106th Airborne Division.

“When Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin] allowed foreigners to come, I made a plan of how everything would work and turned to my general,” Beric said, pointing to Savicic. “The guys come, we meet them, then they immediately go to the military registration and registration office and sign a contract.”

“Most foreign volunteers in the Russian army are from Serbia,” he added.

Beric, a thin man with long black hair, had previously given interviews to Russian state media describing how he fought as part of the self-proclaimed pro-Russian Donetsk People’s Republic in Ukraine starting in 2014.

Russian officials appear to be closely coordinating the recruitment process.

The BBC’s Russian-language service, which first reported on the Serbian recruitment plan last week, said it had obtained a private recording of a meeting between Savicic and unnamed officials in Moscow in which Savicic said he planned to recruit up to 1,000 Serbian nationals as part of the 106th Airborne Division to form a separate battalion.

The Russian Defense Ministry could not be reached for comment.

The exact number of Serbs who have signed a contract with the Russian army remains unclear.

Orden Respubliki, a Russian antiwar whistleblower group, provided the Guardian with a list of 13 Serbs who have allegedly enlisted in the Russian military since September. Two of the 13 men named on the list, including Branko, responded to Guardian requests for comment.

“We are about 60-70 men so far,” said one of the Serbs on the list, who also traveled from Serbia to Moscow in September, adding that he had enlisted in the “106th Airborne Division.”

The man said he chose to join the Russian army for “ideological reasons” and that lucrative military payments played a “secondary role.”

Viktor Zaplatin, a Russian war veteran who recruited Serb volunteers in 2014 to fight alongside pro-Russian forces in Ukraine, said it was an organizational secret how many Serbs were in the Russian military. He also mentioned the law in Serbia that prohibits them from participating in foreign wars.

“The risk of prosecution for those who went to Russia and returned to Serbia is very high,” Zaplatin said. “There have always been volunteers from Serbia in Russia. That means there are volunteers now, but how many and in what capacity they are involved and serve is an organizational secret.”/The Geopost/