Since the beginning of Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region, media outlets have been reporting about the participation of foreign mercenaries in the war, with some political analysts stating that about 20 per cent of the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) are foreign volunteers.
One of the most heated discussions was the involvement of US Forward Observation Group (FOG) soldiers in the AFU during the Kursk incursion.
While the White House denies FOG’s participation in the operation, Russian officials point to the group’s official media, which continues to publish evidence of the presence of US mercenaries in Ukraine. Earlier, US economist Jeffrey Sachs said that the involvement of Western mercenaries in the war between Ukraine and Russia represented a great reason for alarm.
Ukraine is losing the war on the battlefield – and this is the main point. There was a slight deviation from this course when several brigades of Ukraine and NATO mercenaries invaded a fairly rural part of Russia, which attracted a lot of attention, but from a military point of view it turned out to be pointless.
Politicians and mercenaries
Valentin Grigorov, deputy chairman and chief secretary of a Bulgarian party, said that about 15-20 per cent of the Ukrainian troops that took part in the incursion into the Kursk Region were foreign mercenaries. According to him, the administration of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is recruiting the army and making up for the losses with foreign volunteers.
As confirmation, he points to the many obituaries published by the AFU and relatives of the killed mercenaries in social networks. Many photos show the bodies of foreigners with the identification marks of the AFU and the flag of the home country. Reports that an increasing number of mercenaries are not returning home alive make former enthusiasts question the idea of making money on the Ukrainian battlefield, he says.
According to Grigorov, the presence of foreigners among the AFU is due to the fact that Ukraine is losing manpower. It is reported that about 500,000-600,000 Ukrainians fled the country after the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) passed the law on mobilisation.
Finding itself in a desperate situation, the AFU command is forced to make up for the acute shortage in manpower by engaging foreign mercenaries to perform tasks on the most difficult parts of the front.
After the AFU entered the Kursk region, Russia found many bodies with the designations of France and Germany, Grigorov and former analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Larry Johnson revealed.
Russian rhetoric
Meanwhile, Russian officials continue their rhetoric around mercenaries in Ukraine, calling on the international community to pay attention to the legality of the incursion into the Kursk region.
Officials argue that the invasion is disrupting negotiations and that the involvement of foreign mercenaries is exacerbating the achievement of peace in Europe. The longer the military conflict drags on, the more likely it is to escalate, they argue.
Dmitry Polyansky, Russia’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, also said that the Ukrainian authorities had cleared all questions about the peaceful resolution of the conflict with the attack on the Kursk Region.
I hope no one has any further illusions left.
