Ukrainian media sources report that the U.S.-funded Ukrainian military and security apparatus trained the Islamist rebels currently advancing in Syria. Turkey-backed Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), formerly the al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra, is leading the offensive against the forces of Russia-backed President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo, seizing swathes of territory.
According to Ukrainian media, the rebels received operational training from the Khimik group of Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR), mainly relating to drone use.
Al-Nusra Front counts the first leader of the Islamic State terrorist group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, as one of its founders. Footage on social media allegedly shows HTS fighters wearing Islamic State flag patches.
Both al-Nusra and Islamic State have infamously oppressed and murdered Christians in Syria and Iraq, including cases of kidnapping and torture. According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), HTS killed hundreds of civilians from 2012 to 2021.
The Ukrainian military, alongside Turkey, supports the HTS campaign, which is primarily directed at the forces of President Assad and his Russian, Iranian, and Hezbollah allies.
Russia, meanwhile, began a counterattack over the weekend, using airpower to bomb HTS and other rebel positions. The Syrian army claims to have regained some lost ground.
After the start of the war between Russia and Ukraine in 2022, Islamic State radicals called on supporters to take advantage of the war and carry out attacks on Russia.
Islamist terrorists have also used Ukraine as a means to access Europe and plot terror attacks by claiming to be Ukrainian refugees, according to Germany’s spy agency.