Original subtitles

Hello and welcome to Global Eye,

the programme that brings you in-depth investigations

and reporting by the teams of the BBC World Service.

I'm Lyse Doucet, the BBC's Chief International Correspondent.

This week we're in Syria,

a country I've reported from since the mid 1990s.

And we were here in Damascus during those extraordinary days

after the repressive rule of Bashar al-Assad ended

on December the 8th, 2024.

Syrians surged into this iconic Umayyad Square.

You could feel the euphoria, the rare hope.

But on some streets across Syria,

there was also uncertainty.

Some even felt fear.

More than 50 long years of the Assad family's brutal dictatorship

and a 14-year-long civil war had ended.

But how hard has it been to build a new Syria?

Also in this week's programme, we'll reveal how Russia

is luring foreign nationals from all over the world

to fight in Ukraine with generous offers of money and citizenship.

Somali, da?

India? India.

But they're often left with broken promises,

threats to their family,

and condemned to serve on the most dangerous stretches

of the front line.

And I take an exclusive look inside the world of Hind Kabawat

as she navigates her role

as Syria's only female cabinet minister.

December 8th was the day millions of Syrians

thought they would never see.

See that mountain, just behind me?

At the very top sits the presidential palace.

Suddenly, the president was gone.

He fled to Russia with his family,

and opposition fighters poured into this capital

after their astonishing sweep across Syria,

meeting hardly any resistance,

among them the most powerful of all,

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS.

It ended a nightmare which had seen hundreds of thousands killed.

Hundreds of thousands had disappeared into dark dungeons,

many tortured to death,

and millions had been forced to flee their homes, their country.

On that defining day, the leader of HTS,

known by his war name, Abu Mohammed al-Jolani,

immediately came here, to the grand Umayyad Mosque

in the historic Old City.

He announced a new history was now being written.

He soon changed out of his military uniform into a suit

and started using his real name, Ahmed Al-Sharaa.

Syrians wondered, and some worried,

about what life would be like now, under a new leader

with his past links to Al-Qaeda and Islamic State.

President Ahmed Al-Sharaa presented himself as a pragmatist.

One year on, you can feel here what's changed and what's not.

Syrians tell us they now feel freer to speak their mind,

but some still worry a bit about social freedoms.

Here in the Old City,

its famed restaurants and bars are still open,

but some women say they feel a bit more pressure about what they wear,

although there's still that same mix of headscarves and not.

In some ways, life here hasn't really changed much.

Syrians, including all these businesses,

are still living with power cuts and water shortages.

90% of Syrians are still living beneath the poverty line.

They need jobs.

This is Syria's story.

This is Yarmouk.

So many neighbourhoods on the edge of Damascus,

in major cities like Homs and Aleppo,

are just like this - in utter ruin.

A decade ago, in the worst of the war,

we managed to report from inside here, inside Yarmouk,

a place besieged by government forces,

and saw the devastation, the desperation

of a people starving for food, for freedom,

a tactic called surrender or starve.

The rebuild has begun a bit.

The World Bank says Syria needs at least $200 billion

to fix the country.

Millions of Syrians inside and outside the country

can't return home unless there's a home to come back to.

President Al-Sharaa keeps saying he wants investment, not aid.

Now, some Western donors have committed millions,

and some wealthy Gulf states and Turkey have signed big deals,

mainly for infrastructure - the ports, airports,

electricity, energy.

Most investors are still holding back,

waiting for sanctions to be lifted,

for a new legal structure to be put in place,

waiting for security to improve.

Syria's new flag now flies everywhere.

"One hand, one Syria," so the saying goes.

But one year on,

Syria's post-war politics is still dominated by

the former fighters and close allies of President Al-Sharaa,

who come from Syria's majority Sunni community.

There's been tension and violence

against some of the minority communities,

including the Alawites,

the same Shia sect of the ousted Assad family.

GUNFIRE

And also against the Druze in southern Syria.

And there are issues, too, with the Kurds in the north-east.

And to make matters even worse,

Israel continues to bomb Syria,

saying its own security is threatened.

For Syrians, security is a major priority.

Among the issues, the thousands of foreign fighters

drawn into Syria during the civil war.

Syria now is not just a destination for foreign fighters,

it's become a source.

Thousands of young, vulnerable Syrians

are now being recruited into other conflicts.

BBC Eye Investigations has uncovered covert networks

funnelling fighters from Syria, from Yemen,

into Russia's war in Ukraine,

lured by promises of cash and citizenship.

Nawal Al-Maghafi now reports on the human cost of a conflict

reaching far beyond the borders of Russia and Ukraine.

We're in Shakhove in eastern Ukraine,

10km from Russian-controlled territory.

We're following Ukraine's 157th Brigade.

Just days earlier,

the unit captured two fighters carrying Chinese passports.

They're currently being held in a Ukrainian prisoner of war facility.

GUNFIRE

The Russians are continuously recruiting

foreign fighters from all over the world.

Does that worry you?

A lot of these foreign fighters are very desperate.

DISTANT GUNFIRE

What would you say to them?

As we talk, we hear a drone approach from overhead.

It seems to be getting closer.

The war here shows no sign of ending.

Go, go, go, go, go.

For the past year, BBC Eye has been investigating

the networks enticing young men into joining Russia's ranks

and tracking down the foreign soldiers

that made it to the front line of this conflict.

HEAVY BREATHING

This is the voice of Omar - not his real name.

He spent 14 years living through Syria's brutal civil war,

and is the sole breadwinner for his family,

who are struggling to survive.

We're hiding his identity

to protect him from the Russian authorities.

He's been sending us voice notes from the front line.

Omar was recruited by this woman,

Polina Alexandrovna Azarnykh,

a 40-year-old former teacher and businesswoman

from Russia's Voronezh region.

She's been recruiting men into the Russian army

from all over the world through this Telegram channel.

It's become a pipeline into Russia's army.

In March 2024,

Omar and six men from his hometown made their way to Moscow.

There, they met Polina.

She promised them Russian citizenship,

$2,500 monthly

and $5,000 up front

for signing a contract for one year.

Omar says that Polina assured them

that if they gave her a cut of $3,000,

she would also ensure that they'd only serve in non-combat roles.

But that promise wasn't kept.

In response to his accusations,

Polina made this threat.

We've spoken to 12 families

whose sons were recruited by Polina.

All of them are now either dead or missing.

And in the last year,

we've been able to track over 490 invitations

she's sent to men from all over the world.

But she is not the only one operating in this way.

The Kremlin has relied on informal recruiters globally

since the start of the full-scale invasion.

GUNFIRE

So far, Russia has succeeded in bringing in

an estimated 20,000 foreign fighters

from places like Nepal,

Egypt and Cuba,

as well as other countries across Africa,

Iraq and Yemen.

We made our way to Lviv in western Ukraine,

to one of the country's largest prisoner of war facilities

to meet some of the captured foreign fighters.

Nowhere is the diversity of Russia's recruitment scheme

more apparent than here.

Does anyone here speak Arabic?

Where are you from? Sri Lanka?

Is it OK if we film your table?

No.

We're not allowed to show

the prisoners' faces without their consent.

But there are people here from all over the world.

I've met someone from Egypt, from Senegal, from Sri Lanka.

There are men here from everywhere.

I'm being taken to meet fighters from Yemen.

Khalil had only been in Russia six weeks

before he was captured.

Khalil told me he knew going to Russia might lead to army service,

but the money they were promised convinced him.

Khalil asked if he could call his mother to let her know he's alive.

LINE RINGS

For now, Khalil can only leave prison if he is sent back to Yemen

or traded in a prisoner exchange with Russia.

Despite his newly gained Russian citizenship,

neither country has tried to repatriate him.

The contracts foreign fighters sign

are issued by the Ministry of Defence.

Recruiters like Polina facilitate this.

On her Telegram group, she says that the contract only lasts a year.

What she fails to mention is that a September 2022 decree

from President Putin binds all soldiers

to serve until the war ends, leaving men like Omar trapped.

We reached out to Polina.

After weeks of back-and-forth,

she agrees to speak to us via video call.

Hello?

Is this Polina?

Polina, you know that I'm going to make this call.

I'm Nawal Al-Maghafi at the BBC.

OK, so my first question is, I've spoken to recruits who say

that you promised them non-combat roles,

and they say that you misled them. Mm-hm.

What's your answer to this?

INDISTINCT

Can you explain to her that it's really important?

BEEPING

She's hung up.

It's OK.

We sent our allegations to Polina in full.

She left us this voice note.

For now, the war between Russia and Ukraine grinds on,

putting more civilians at risk.

Moscow will continue to feed its war machine.

The burden falls on the vulnerable,

the young men sent to fight with no experience,

the families waiting for news,

and the prisoners forgotten in Ukraine.

Here are some other stories

that the BBC World Service has covered this week.

We just saw Nawal Al-Maghafi's investigation

into Russia's foreign fighters.

This week, Nawal has also been reporting on a network

of secret prisons run by the UAE

during Yemen's decade-long civil war.

Former detainees told the BBC they were subjected

to brutal treatment and harsh conditions.

Nawal's full story is on the BBC News website.

Syria confronts so many challenges.

Syrians tell us they know it will take time

to build a new Syria, but they want to see their leader moving towards

a more inclusive system.

His current cabinet only includes one woman,

so how much can Hind Kabawat,

Syria's Minister of Social Affairs and Labour, really achieve?

A new start for Syria.

The dead weight of dictatorship, gone.

You can still feel the lightness.

But building a new Syria takes time.

Hind Kabawat feels the pressure.

Oh, my God. You have to meet these two women. Wow.

She's the director of Daraa, and she's the director of Quneitra.

The women's representatives coming from...

They have positions.

They have positions and now we are supporting them.

I didn't change my furniture...

To her office, Hind brings her own history -

educated in the East and West, lawyer,

former opposition leader,

living in exile for 14 years.

Now, a seat at the top table,

some staff from the old ministry working with her,

Having two - social affairs and labour...

One would be a lot of work. Having two...

Two in transition period and post-conflict.

Yeah. It's too much?

Yeah, it is too much, but, er, it's OK.

Is it? This is the challenge.

In Syria, women have always been visible in public life.

Many now want to be part of this moment of sweeping change.

Do you think you bring something different to your job

because you are a woman?

Er, you know what?

With no diplomacy here, yes.

But you're lonely there.

You're the only woman in the government. You're dominat...

You're surrounded by the men who are leading.

No, actually... Who are in charge. Actually, I surround them.

Really? Don't underestimate the power of woman.

The president is very supportive of us.

I have the full authority to do

whatever I want in my ministry.

They respect what I do, and I want to have more women

in there, in the cabinet.

Today the minister takes her team to Idlib,

the former rebel stronghold of the men now in charge.

14 years of war left many wounds.

This is one.

Hundreds of thousands of displaced people

still languish in camps like this.

Hind is here to hear their stories.

Families live in flimsy tents

in pain, poverty, and no aid from anyone.

Hind throws it back to them.

A minister unable to offer much aid,

except to try to help people help themselves.

Do you fear that people's patience will run out?

Of course, and they're right.

You put yourself into their shoes.

And we don't have the money.

And if we don't have united effort

from the international community to help at least

building some houses for those people,

because this is hard for them...

What members of the international community say is,

the government is too slow,

that you're not moving quickly enough on establishing

a new legal framework, on transparency.

We are moving, but you have to understand

it's only one year now.

We get a country that's been completely destroyed.

There are still long shadows at the start of Syria's new day -

a country some call a mosaic.

Many traditions and sects.

War created deep cracks.

Some fear they're getting worse.

Alawites, Druze, Kurds, all accuse Syria's new leaders -

former fighters, all Sunni Muslims -

of turning their guns against them.

In the past year, there was this massacre in the coastal areas.

1,400 people killed.

And the inquiry said possible war crimes were committed.

Again, violence in the south against the Druze.

This has opened a wound.

Did the government make mistakes in how it responded?

Mistakes happen in transition, in post-conflict.

But more than just mistakes?

Yeah, but...but what happened, immediately,

there is a commission to inqui... A commission of inquiry.

There is investigation. And I know now so many of those

who committed those crimes are in prison.

Am I happy about it? Of course not.

Not even the president. Everyone, we're not happy.

Syria's scars run deep -

entire neighbourhoods wiped out by war.

Some of the worst fighting was here, on the edges of the capital.

I came to Jobar with Fawzia al Assad, a civil society activist.

She's focused on the most painful of issues

for many ministries, including Hind's.

Fawzia shows me images on her phone of her effort to heal these wounds.

Truth tents, they're called - a space where Syrians meet every month

to share their photos, their stories.

Fawzia has her own.

Her father, Khalid,

detained on October 21st, 2012.

When the regime fell, only a confirmation came.

He was dead.

Uncle Abdul Karim had been taken, too, that same year,

one month later.

And Uncle Khalid.

But no-one seems to know what happened to them.

Are you getting any support at all from the government?

And what about the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour,

with Hind Kabawat? Have you gone there?

Syrians want answers and action.

Hind says it's a priority, but so much else is, too.

Home.

Hind's family home -

a place to refresh, to reflect.

Is there one moment in this last year

where you came home, you thought,

"I just...I just can't...can't do it"?

I see the suffering of the people post-conflict.

I see the suffering of the women who lost their children.

And I feel responsible.

I feel responsible for their pain.

Sometimes I say, "Why did I do this?"

But...but in the end, I say, "If I don't serve them now...

"..I will have more tears later."

So tears at home.

Feeling that sometimes I don't have the resource to...to help everybody.

That's...that's the only time I feel like, er...

.."Why did I do this?" Yeah.

CHEERING

Syrians still celebrate the end of decades of dictatorship.

ULULATION

A year is a short time to move from war to peace.

But Syrians now want to see clearer signs

that this is a new start.

Thank you for joining us here in Syria.

We like receiving your feedback,

so let us know what you think on social media

Goodbye for now.