On 18 March, Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah dismissed media reports suggesting that the Lebanese resistance movement has deployed its fighters and experts to Ukraine to fight alongside Russian troops carrying out a special military operation in that country.

Nasrallah was quoted by Lebanon-based Al Mayadeen television saying that “no one from Hezbollah, neither a fighter nor an expert, has gone to this arena or to any of the arenas in this war.”

The comments by the Hezbollah leader were in response to the Ukrainian defense ministry claim that a team of 1,000 fighters, made up of members of the Syrian army and Hezbollah, was fighting alongside Russian soldiers near Donetsk.

The statement went on to claim that Moscow was recruiting foreign fighters to make up for Russian soldiers killed during the operation in Ukraine. The ministry has, however, failed to produce any evidence of alleged Syrian and Hezbollah fighters.

On 11 March, Russian President Vladimir Putin said his government would support foreigners willing to travel to the Donbass region on a voluntary basis to help defend the people of the region from Ukrainian aggression.

“If you there are people who want, of their own accord, and not for money, to come to help the people living in Donbass, then we need to give them what they want and help them reach the conflict zone,” the Russian leader said.

Putin’s comments were made in response to Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu’s disclosure that more than 16,000 people in West Asia had expressed interest in traveling to the region to help local forces fend off Ukrainian attacks.

Meanwhile, on 8 March, The Cradle reported that hundreds of militants from various Syrian groups linked to ISIS and Al-Qaeda had arrived in Ukraine to fight the Russian army.

The militants have reportedly joined the Ukrainian government’s so-called foreign legion, which is made up foreign fighters, and which includes Israelis and members of neo-Nazi groups from various western countries.