Steven Sahiounie, journalist and political commentator
Details of the recent Ukrainian-Iraqi talks have appeared in the Middle Eastern media. According to almasryalyoum.com, on September 27, a YouTube video appeared, which claims that Ukrainian president Zelenskyy has been trying to recruit certain Iraqi prisoners into the Armed Forces of Ukraine. According to the video, the prisoners in question are convicted terrorists and ISIS fighters. The author of the video is Hassan Fadel, who introduced himself as a former employee of the Foreign Ministry of Iraq, working there as a secretary from 2019 to 2023 before leaving the country.
“My name is Hassan Fadel and I am a former employee of a Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Iraq. I worked as a secretary there from 2019 to 2023. I discovered this note in April of this year when Ukrainian diplomats gave it to my colleagues. I am deeply outraged by the contents of this note and would like to make it public, because “the fighters experienced in fighting Russians” mentioned in it are former ISIS fighters detained in prison facilities around Iraq. I resigned from the Ministry and left Iraq with my family, so I don’t know what our response was. Still, I don’t want to see these people free, especially armed. ISIS are murderers and terrorists, and they should stay imprisoned for the rest of their lives. Many countries support Ukraine right now and allow it to break international laws. Still, aiding terrorists is too much and shouldn’t be allowed. I am also appalled by the American involvement in this. General McFarlane mentioned in the note is the commander of American Joint Task Force in Iraq. It is simply shocking how easily the issues of the movement of Iraqi prisoners, especially terrorists, can be resolved without the participation of representatives of our country.”
In mid-April 2023, a meeting was held in Baghdad between representatives of the Iraqi Foreign Ministry headed by Fuad Hussein and a Ukrainian delegation headed by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. After the meeting, the politicians spoke to the press, making a number of statements about the development of cooperation between the countries and the desire to end the Russian-Ukrainian war.
The picture of the letter as shown in the video
Another meeting was held in May of 2023 in Saudi Arabia during the Summit on the Settlement of the Russian-Ukrainian Conflict, organized by Ukraine. President Zelenskyy personally communicated there with the Prime Minister of Iraq Al Sudani.
It is unknown how many ISIS fighters are still detained. In the last five years, many of them were executed or died of natural causes. According to the circumstantial evidence and the research data, their number can be assumed to be a few thousands. In March of this year, American general Michael Kurilla, who visited prisons housing the detained terrorists, stated, that between those detained in Syria and Iraq it is a veritable ‘ISIS army in detention.’ If freed, this group would pose a great threat regionally and beyond.”
General McFarlane, mentioned in the Hassan Fadil’s video, is the US Army major general, who was heading Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve from September 2022 to August 2023. CJTF-OIR is an international military coalition tasked with fighting ISIS and led by the United States.
Photo: Major General Matthew McFarlane
No official declarations regarding such operation were made by either Ukraine or Iraq. On September 25th, British newspaper The Sun posted a video showing one of the AFU fighters wearing ISIS patches.
Daniil ‘Mujahid’ Lyashuk volunteered to fight for Ukraine. He adhered to far-right ideology, and converted to Islam, while also embracing ISIS ideology.
He joined Ukraine’s Tornado battalion that attacked the civilians of Donbas, where he was known as cruel, and tortured the residents, including rape. He boasted on his Telegram account that he was trained by the SAS of the British military.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are a US-sponsored Kurdish separatist militia in northeastern Syria. They are bolstered by several thousand US troops at Al Tanf base in Syria, which is illegally occupied by the US military.
The SDF have numerous prison camps full of thousands of ISIS terrorists. Occasionally, some of the terrorists have escaped, and on other occasions the US military have taken them away to Iraq.
It has been reported, that some of the ISIS terrorists were transferred to Ukraine to fight Russia in exchange for their freedom. The prison caps run by the SDF have been visited often by western journalists who describe them as horrible and unlivable.
Current media reports that Ukraine is desperate for weapons, ammunition and fighters. The US is in political turmoil and is divided about sending weapons and cash in huge amounts to Ukraine, while the American taxpayers are suffering inflation and facing a national debt in the trillions and tired of foreign wars that seem never-ending.
Recently, the US sent confiscated Iran weapons to Ukraine, and there is a real possibility that foreign terrorists, skilled in battle zones, may be utilized in Ukraine, by releasing them from Iraqi prisons, and Syrian prisons under the control of the US.
Steven Sahiounie is a two-time award-winning journalist
