Putin is paying UK and US-trained specialist Afghan soldiers to fight

With the Russian military struggling in Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin has taken drastic measures to bolster his forces. Last month, he announced a partial mobilisation which will see hundreds of thousands of civilians with previous military experience join the war. But Putin isn’t just turning to his own population. It was recently reported that Russia has begun recruiting soldiers who fled Afghanistan last year as the US and UK forces withdrew from the country.Afghanistan’s elite commandos were trained by the US and UK, but when Western troops left last year, the Afghan soldiers were targeted by the Taliban as the group regained power. This meant many were forced to flee the country with the majority making their way to Iran.But now, the Russian government is offering these highly trained soldiers cash incentives among other things to lure them into fighting for Moscow’s military in Ukraine. Lynne O’Donnell, a journalist at Foreign Policy, has reported extensively on the story.Speaking to Monocle 24’s The Globalist podcast, she said: “We are talking about between 20,000 and 30,000 elite, trained, specialist soldiers of the Afghanistan defence forces. They were trained by the US Navy SEALS as well as Britain’s SAS.”Each soldier cost around $300,000 to train, and they were trained not only in Afghanistan but also in the countries they were working with. They were trained in techniques used by specialist western military units like tactical operations, night raids, navigational skills, covert surveillance and interrogation. Putin has turned to Afghan soldiers to bolster his forces (Image: Getty) British troops trained Afghan soldiers (Image: Getty) Russian soldiers have struggled to make progress in Ukraine (Image: Getty) The Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979 (Image: Getty)The journalist also believes they could make a real impact in the war. Various reports over the last eight months have told of logistical issues within the Russian military.Poorly equipped, poorly trained soldiers have been left with little direction in the war. At the start of the invasion, some Russian troops even claimed they had no idea they were about to invade a sovereign nation.But these new Afghan soldiers could make a real difference with their military expertise. Ms O’Donnell explained: “One of the former commando generals told me that this is a potential game-changer [in Ukraine].”There is the Wagner Group which is a shady mercenary group that works for Putin, going into prisons in Russia and offering to cancel sentences if they sign up to fight in Ukraine. These people are not skilled, they are cannon fodder.DON’T MISSRussia nuclear attack ‘not as improbable’ as intelligence shows talks [INSIGHT]Putin threatens UK with ‘unpredictable and dangerous’ response [ANALYSIS]Putin humiliated as Russian troop salaries set to bankrupt Kremlin [INSIGHT] The Afghan commando troops were targeted by the Taliban (Image: Getty)”A lot of the skills that the Afghans would be able to offer don’t exist in Russia. It could certainly boost the tactical and strategic ability of the Russian army as it struggles in Ukraine.”However, Ms O’Donnell also said that some of the Afghan elite soldiers are reluctant to help the Russians given the country’s chequered past. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979 under the pretext of preserving the Soviet-Afghan Friendship Treaty – signed because Moscow wanted to keep Afghanistan’s unpopular communist rulers in powerWhen they were eventually overthrown, the Soviets invaded the country. After a 10-year war, the Soviet Union retreated in 1989 having spent millions and lost 15,000 soldiers. Two million Afghans also lost their lives. The war has been described as ‘Russia’s Vietnam’.It appears Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is headed for a similar conclusion. While there are no universally accepted figures, Putin has lost tens of thousands of soldiers in the fighting in Ukraine.