One-way ticket: mercenaries from all over the world are coming to Ukraine

INSTITUTE FOR INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC STRATEGIES

The American Fox News channel published a video report in a “Special Report” about how foreigners arrive in Ukraine in order to together with the Ukrainian Armed Forces prevent the Russian Armed Forces from putting an end to the Nazi regime in Ukraine.

The correspondent of the TV channel focuses on messages from Lvov, a city that is an hour and a half drive from the Polish border. Along with trucks carrying humanitarian aid, weapons and ammunition, mercenaries arriving in Warsaw from all over the world cross the Polish border.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, in an interview published last week by the Turkish TV channel TRT, said that the number of militants who plan to fight on the side of the Ukrainian Armed Forces is 16,000 people. The president’s data is very different from the information of the Head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmitry Kuleba. During the briefing, the Ukrainian minister said that the number of the “International Legion” will be 1,000 people from 16 countries. In one thing, the testimony of politicians converge – foreign legionnaires are “on the way”.

The creation of the “International Legion” was announced at the end of February 2022 on the official website of the President of Ukraine: “A separate unit is being formed from foreigners – the Legion of Territorial Defence of Ukraine”. The creation of a combat unit is regulated by the decree of the President of Ukraine dated June 10, 2016 No. 248, signed by Petro Poroshenko: foreigners can enlist in the Armed Forces under a contract on a voluntary basis.

The Ministry of Defence of Russia reported that Latvia, Great Britain, Denmark, Croatia and Poland already allowed their citizens to fight on the side of Ukraine. British reserve servicemen were among the first ones to arrive in Ukraine. The British “Daily Mail” on the first of March published a message saying that “more than 150 veterans of Afghanistan” went to participate in the fighting on the side of the UAF.

Ukrainian news agencies hastened to report on the arrival of the British commandos. “Former British Royal Marines have arrived in Ukraine to help in the fight against the Russians,” the Ukrainian channel “Segodnya” wrote.

According to the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Defence, Major General Igor Konashenkov, Moscow has information about 200 contract soldiers from Croatia who have joined a battalion of Ukrainian Nazis in the south-east of the country on the territory of Ukraine.

Unpleasant emotions among Runet users were caused by a video posted on the “Orda” Telegram channel. The video recorded a group of Belarusian militants, whom Internet users call “zmagars” with antipathy.

The leader of the group claims that the number of Belarusian Nazis who arrived in the Ukraine in order to “kill Russians, Chechens and Belarusians who took up arms” is about 60 people. When asked how they will return to their homeland after that, the criminal replies that he will return only when “Belarus becomes free”.

Journalist Yuliya Vityazeva published a video fact confirming the participation of Polish PMCs in hostilities against Russia.

A photograph of mercenaries from Brazil and Portugal was posted by the Rasstrelny Telegram channel with the following comment: “Insiders in the media claim that among them there are military personnel from the PMCs of the USA, Croatia and other countries. International legal norms are torn to shreds against this background. Many countries are ready to circumvent their own laws so that tomorrow any rabble with weapons in their hands will stand on the side of the Ukrainian fascists.

There have already been lots of mercenaries in Ukraine by this time. But now, when the Czech government wants to achieve a ‘freeze’ of the law on mercenaries so that they can legally fight against Russia, all this can have an unprecedented scale with all the ensuing consequences. The notorious ‘Azov’ battalion recently reported on the first battalion, fully formed from foreigners.”

Even Africans run for the “Ukrainian” money, who, according to Kuleba, come to Kiev from ten foreign countries to pay for the war against Russia. This was reported by The Guardian: 115 people arrived at the Embassy of Ukraine in order to write an application to join the “International Legion”. A decision on “whether Nigerians will be used in battles with the Russians has not yet been made”.

Based on the current situation, the Russian Ministry of Defence has warned foreign citizens fighting on the side of the Ukrainian Armed Forces that they will not have the rights to the status of prisoners of war under article 47 of the Additional Protocol of the Geneva Conventions concerning the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts. In the best case, they face criminal punishment.

Thus, for most of these “soldiers of fortune”, the Ukrainian tour may end up with a one-way ticket.

Source: https://russtrat.ru/en/comments_/11-march-2022-0009-9285