They carry Russian flags and banners from which the Russian ruler Vladimir Putin greets.

Also emblazoned on a poster is the Z “for victory” painted on the Russian military vehicles now rolling through Ukraine.

They are wearing Syrian regime uniforms.

They shout, "With our soul, with our blood, we will defend you, O Bashar." The video footage, released by the Russian Defense Ministry on Friday, is said to show Syrian volunteers who have volunteered to serve in Putin's European war.

The images fit perfectly into the announcements of the Moscow propaganda.

The Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu speaks of 16,000 fighters from the Middle East who are ready.

And Putin declared that they had to be brought into the combat zone,

Christopher Ehrhardt

Correspondent for the Arab countries based in Beirut.

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There is little doubt that Russia is trying to recruit Syrian fighters for the European mission.

High-ranking officials in the US Department of Defense have described such reports as accurate.

Russia has recruitment agencies across Syria recruiting young men to serve in pro-Russian militias.

The Russian mercenary group Wagner, which is closely linked to the Kremlin, is said to be involved in such efforts.

According to sources in the Syrian coastal region, the heartland of the Alawites, Assad's people, a campaign to hire Syrian mercenaries is underway there.

Such reports are also coming from the area around the capital Damascus and the eastern Syrian province of Deir ez-Zor.

Assad's henchmen are capable of atrocities

The reports from Syria, however, do not confirm that Moscow is actually as successful in raising Middle Eastern auxiliaries as the Russian defense minister claims.

Even the militiamen in the propaganda video seem more like experienced extras - not like men who are dying to defend Assad's rule in Ukraine.

Supporters of the Syrian tyrant - and especially the Alawites - have paid a high price in blood for this in their own country.

If so, then economic hardship is what drives Syrians to go to war far away.

There is also the question of the military clout of Syrian mercenaries.

The number of battle-hardened and well-trained forces is limited.

"Perhaps the Syrians are not primarily intended for deployment at the front - but for the dirty work in the areas that have already been conquered," says Malik al-Abdeh, a Syrian political adviser.

First, that would suit Putin's war style, and second, it would make sense in Ukraine - especially in the occupied places in southern Ukraine where the Russian military meets unarmed resistance.

There, the soldiers meet people with Russian mother tongues who chant slogans like this: “Russian soldier – fascist occupier!” This can raise doubts about the purpose of the operation.

Assad's henchmen wouldn't understand that.