Russia recruits Serbian mercenaries, settles them in Moscow suburbs

Russia is recruiting Serbian mercenaries and housing them in a student accommodation building in the suburbs of Moscow, with plans to form a full-fledged Serbian brigade.

Source: BBC Russian Service

Details: The BBC Russian Service discovered that Serbian mercenaries are enrolled in the 106th Airborne Division. In particular, Serbian commander Davor Savicic, who has been fighting in the east of Ukraine since 2014; Alexander "Surgeon" Zaldostanov, the leader of the Night Wolves; and the son of the ex-president of Yugoslavia, Marko Milošević, who lives in Russia, are involved in recruiting.

Quote: "The BBC Russian service studied the recording of one of the meetings with the participation of Davor Savicic, during which he stated that he is going to form a full-fledged Serbian brigade as part of the 106th Tula Division of the Russian Airborne Forces by the fall of 2023, recruiting up to a thousand Serbian citizens into it.

A whole system was developed for this project in Moscow Oblast: foreigners arriving in Russia were accommodated in a temporary student accommodation building next to the ski stadium in Krasnogorsk; a special notary must handle all their documents; and contracts are drawn up in Korolyov."

More details: Journalists reported that Moscow Oblast was chosen because the region did not fulfil the tasks set before it regarding the number of conscripted soldiers ("volunteers").

The BBC Russian Service also got access to a list of the names of Serbs who were recruited into the Russian army. Among them was a Serbian citizen, Vukašin Stevanović.

He denied that he had entered into a contract and now serves in the 106th Airborne Division. Vukašin Stevanović claims that he works in Russia as an ordinary construction worker. In several photos on his social media, he poses with a weapon in the military uniform of the Serbian army.

"I was born to fight, and I will fight," Stevanović wrote about himself.

His mother told the BBC Russian Service that Stevanović has been in Russia "for more than a year", where he allegedly "works in construction". He rarely calls her because of "problems with the mobile network in Russia."

The fact that Serbian mercenaries are participating in the war in Ukraine was confirmed at the end of August by Davor Savicic and Serbian sniper Dejan Berić on the broadcast of the Solovyov Live programme [propaganda programme presented by Vladimir Solovyov, a Russian propagandist].

Savicic said that his battalion was in the area of the Hostomel airfield near Kyiv at the beginning of the war, after which they were transferred to Kharkiv Oblast and then to the village of Bohorodychne, Kramatorsk district, Donetsk Oblast.

Mercenarism is a criminal offence in Serbia, so Serbs recruited into the Russian army can face up to 10 years in prison at home.

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