BAKU, October 11. /TASS/. Western countries have turned Ukraine into a training ground for foreign terrorists and mercenaries, Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Alexander Bortnikov said.
"As a result of deliberate actions by the Western coalition, Ukraine has been turned into a training ground for terrorists and mercenaries, where they are studying methods of modern warfare in order to put this experience into practice in countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and other parts of the world," Bortnikov stressed at a meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of Security Agencies and Special Services, which is taking place under his chairmanship in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku.
The FSB chief emphasized that, "the Western intelligence community and non-governmental organizations are engaged on behalf of Ukrainian armed units in recruiting members of international terrorist organizations, Nazis and mercenaries who underwent training in Afghanistan, the Middle East, Europe and overseas."
"Seventeen training camps are operating in EU countries alone, supervised by NATO intel agencies. The Westerners are actively facilitating the movement of militants to the Ukrainian conflict zone," Bortnikov pointed out. "We are aware of members of 13 private European military companies and nine foreign paramilitary proxy groups involved in the military activities there," he added. According to him, altogether "794 mercenaries from 35 countries have been identified."
"We have reliable information that ISIL (the former name of the Islamic State terror group, outlawed in Russia, - TASS) members and the like are fighting against us as part of Ichkerian (Chechen - TASS) and Crimean Tatar units. They have also joined sabotage and reconnaissance groups that are sent to Russia to carry out attacks and acts of terrorism," Bortnikov said. "Washington and its NATO allies have turned Ukraine into a source of military and terrorist threats on the border of the Union State of Russia and Belarus," he added.
Meanwhile, in the FSB chief’s words, the West is ramping up supplies of heavy equipment and long-range weapons to Ukraine, along with banned cluster and depleted uranium munitions, and air-and sea-launched combat drones, as well as advanced control and communications devices. The possibility of sending fourth-generation multi-purpose fighter jets to the Kiev regime is also under consideration. In addition, Western countries are providing paramilitary groups operating in the conflict zone with intelligence, and are planning and coordinating combat operations, support activities in which NATO staff officers are actively engaged.