Putin Resorts to Syrian Mercenaries in Ukraine. It’s Not the First Time.

In June 2021, four young Syrian men were on the final leg of their journey to the Central African Republic. As their connecting flight took off from Lomé, Togo’s capital, the contrast between the boisterous, bedraggled group and their fellow passengers—African businessmen, U.N. officials, affluent local families, charity workers—could not have been more striking.