Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with the Russian Security Council on Friday to discuss the military operation led by his country in Ukraine. The Russian Ministry of Defense reported the seizure of a large number of portable air defense systems from the Ukrainian army, the destruction of 3,346 military infrastructure sites in Ukraine, and the downing of five Ukrainian drones in the air. During the meeting, Putin confirmed that volunteers wishing to fight would be allowed to go to Ukraine, while Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu stated that "16,000 volunteers from the Middle East are ready to fight in the Donbas" separatist region in Ukraine. According to Russian media, Putin has ordered the facilitation of sending "volunteer" fighters from the Middle East to Ukraine to fight. He added that this step is justified because "the western puppeteers of the Ukrainian regime do not even control what they are doing" and are openly gathering "mercenaries from around the world to send them to Ukraine." Ukraine had announced the formation of a foreign volunteer corps integrated into its armed forces to fight Russian forces on its territory.
In related news, Putin expressed support for a proposal made by Shoigu to transfer weapons to separatists in the Donbas region of Ukraine. Putin agreed to deliver recently seized missile systems to the Russian-backed separatists. The Russian Defense Minister had suggested supplying American-made anti-tank systems such as Javelin and Stinger to fighters in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions. Putin voiced his support for such an idea during the Russian Security Council meeting.
Additionally, the Russian Defense Minister announced that Russia intends to strengthen its western borders with new systems, stating, "The General Staff is working on a plan to bolster our western borders with new and modern systems and to redeploy military units." Putin also requested Shoigu to propose military redeployments along Russia's western border, in response to those carried out by NATO in Eastern Europe.
In another context, during a later meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Putin confirmed that "there is a positive shift in negotiations with Ukraine." Regarding the sanctions imposed by the West on Russia, he remarked: "The Soviet Union previously coexisted for a long time with sanctions."
