Russian football hooligans form a separate battalion to fight in Ukraine

Russia intensifies recruitment of football hooligans to fight in Ukraine.

A battalion called Española, made up of thugs from the Terrassen, has now been given special status among the forces supporting Vladimir Putin.

The news comes as Moscow launches a desperate recruiting campaign to replace the fighters it lost in Ukraine.

Previously, the Wagner mercenary group recruited convicts from Russian prisons to fight on the front lines, but after their numbers were decimated during the ongoing siege of Bakhmut, the Kremlin was forced to seek “alternative sources” for manpower.

Reports surfaced this week of female prisoners being transported to the front lines to “make up for lost personnel”.

Meanwhile, Wagner reportedly recruited high school students from Moscow schools, conducted “career interviews” and distributed questionnaires called “Application of a Young Warrior” to collect their contact information.

Hooligans used to be recruited as well, but now their Española Battalion is being reclassified as a separate private military company, with the green light to expand recruiting.

The hooligans are told to “have the coolest adventure of your life with a real chance of making it out of these scrapes alive” and are promised a “decent reward” for turning their violent instincts against Ukraine.

Española commander Stanislav Orlov, call sign “Spaniard”, said: “We were volunteers and then part of the DPR [Donetsk People’s Republic] forces.

“Recently we managed to acquire our own status.

“So now we don’t belong to any battalion or division.

“We have been authorized to raise a separate battalion, Española.”

The hooligans’ battalion was initially 550 strong, including 100 pilots of kamikaze drones used to attack Ukraine, he said.

The hooligans say they are equipped by football fans from all over Russia.

“There are many,” he said.

“Actually, all over Russia, in different cities, there are different football teams…

“We tell them what we need [and they provide it]’.

Five years ago, Putin’s regime tried desperately to crack down on Russian hooligans and ultras – with a crackdown by the FSB to prevent them from ruining the FIFA World Cup hosted by Putin.

In 2016, during the UEFA European Championship tournament in France, Russian hooligans argued with English fans.

Now they are formalized as armed forces and seen as heroes.

Española is currently recruiting “stormtroopers”, reconnaissance saboteurs, snipers, drone operators, electronic warfare and air defense operators, portable ground reconnaissance stations, anti-tank guided missile operators, anti-aircraft specialists, communications specialists, mechanical drivers and medics.

Prospective combatants are told that they will undergo “quick but thorough training in all directions, with a real opportunity – or rather necessity – to become a ‘universal soldier'”.

You will “become a true military man and benefit the Motherland without delay”.

And the stadium fighters “get access and learn to work with the most modern weapons, equipment and technology”.

Sniper detachments “are equipped with the most advanced technologies – this applies to transport, equipment and, of course [guns].’

Recruits are told that they “must not be hooligans, but be close to us in spirit and abide by the main principles of Española in life”.

Former Russia international Andrey Solomatin, 47, is one of those recruits.

He played for Moscow clubs CSKA and Lokomotiv.

Recruitment meetings have recently been held in Moscow and Saint Petersburg, among others.

They include recruits from the hooligan armies of clubs like CSKA, Zenit, Spartak, Torpedo and Lokomotiv and the infamous Orel Butchers.

It is known that to this day some have died in the war.

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