The Ukrainian Armed Forces have formed a battalion called "Sybir", comprised entirely of russian citizens who wish to fight against the russian invasion. This information is reported by Bloomberg.
"This battalion has brought together dozens of russians and people from ethnic minorities in russia who traveled via third countries because they wanted to join the Ukrainian army, according to officials at their training camp. Unlike volunteer groups such as the Freedom of russia legion that have declared support for Ukraine, the soldiers are part of the regular Ukrainian army and expect to be sent into battle very soon", - the publication states.
Members of the "Sybir" battalion underwent thorough security checks to ensure their loyalty to Ukraine, and then signed military contracts, adopting army call signs to protect their identities.
“We need to destroy the kremlin regime”, - said a 29-year-old Yakut with the call sign Vargan, who admitted he had no military experience before traveling thousands of miles from the Siberian city of Irkutsk to try to join the Ukrainian army. Originally from russia’s diamond-rich Yakutia region, he added: “I want Yakutia to be a free democratic country, it is a very rich country but people are so poor. Only state officials who serve putin are flourishing”.
All the members of the 60-strong battalion are volunteers and none are recruited from among russian prisoners of war, said a Ukrainian army official, as reported by Bloomberg.
As previously reported, the Freedom of russia Legion re-ntered russia's Belgorod region on September 28.