Now, they are jobless and hopeless, many commandos still waiting for resettlement in the United States or Britain, making them easy targets for recruiters who understand the \u201cband of brothers\u201d mentality of highly skilled fighting men. This potentially makes them easy pickings for Russian recruiters, said Afghan security sources. A former senior Afghan security official, who requested anonymity, said their integration into the Russian military \u201cwould be a game-changer\u201d on the Ukrainian battlefield, as Russian President Vladimir Putin struggles to recruit for his faltering war and is reportedly using the notorious mercenary Wagner Group\u00a0to sign up prisoners.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Wagner is a shady organization that officially doesn\u2019t exist but is believed to be run by\u00a0Yevgeny Prigozhin, an associate of Putin who possibly funds it through the GRU military intelligence agency. It reportedly first\u00a0emerged\u00a0in Crimea after Moscow\u2019s 2014 annexation of the region from Ukraine, and it has since appeared in Syria, Libya, and elsewhere in Africa. Prigozhin was recently filmed signing up prisoners in return for canceled sentences to reinforce Russian lines in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
A former official, who was also an Afghan commando officer, said he believed Wagner was behind Russia\u2019s\u00a0recruitment of Afghanistan\u2019s special forces. \u201cI am telling you [the recruiters] are Wagner Group. They are gathering people from all over. The only entity that recruits foreign troops [for Russia] are Wagner Group, not their army. It\u2019s not an assumption; it\u2019s a known fact,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019d be better used by Western allies to fight alongside Ukrainians. They don\u2019t want to fight for the Russians; the Russians are the enemy. But what else are they going to do?\u201d<\/p>\n
Some former commandos report being contacted on WhatsApp and Signal with offers to join what some experts referred to as a Russian \u201cforeign legion\u201d to fight in Ukraine. News of the recruitment efforts has caused alarm in Afghanistan\u2019s former military and security circles, with members saying up to 10,000 former commandos could be amenable to the Russian offers. As another military source put it: \u201cThey have no country, no jobs, no future. They have nothing to lose.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not difficult,\u201d he added. \u201cThey are waiting for work for $3 to $4 a day in Pakistan or Iran or $10 a day in Turkey, and if Wagner or any other intelligence services come to a guy and offer $1,000 to be a fighting man again, they won\u2019t reject it. And if you find one guy to recruit, he can get half his old unit to join up because they are like brothers\u2014and pretty soon, you\u2019ve got a whole platoon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since global attention switched to Ukraine following Russia\u2019s February invasion, the Afghan commandos have been left high and dry. Instead of helping them escape Taliban death squads, the United States and its allies have largely gone AWOL. Their vulnerability to recruitment by countries hostile to the United States was flagged in a\u00a0report\u00a0by Rep. Michael McCaul on last year\u2019s evacuation debacle. Referring to United States\u2019\u00a0intelligence assets\u2014which include the Afghan commandos\u2014he said they \u201ccould potentially present a risk to U.S. security should they be coerced or coopted into working with an adversary, including international terrorist groups such as [the Islamic State-Khorasan] or state actors like China, Russia, and Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n