Putin approves 'volunteer fighters' to Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered that so-called volunteer fighters should be brought into Ukraine.

Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said Russia knew of “more than 16,000 applications” from countries in the Middle East, many of them from people who he said helped Russia against the Islamic State group, according to a Kremlin transcript.

They want “to take part in what they consider a liberation movement,” Shoigu said, on the side of Russia-backed separatist regions in eastern Ukraine.