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Written by Lucas Leiroz, journalist, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, geopolitical consultant
The recruitment of foreign mercenaries has become commonplace for the Kiev regime. With its troops weakened and unable to replace casualties, Ukraine focuses on hiring foreign soldiers in its so-called “International Legion”. In response, eliminating foreign troops has become a priority for Moscow. Since mercenary practice is illegal, these soldiers are excluded from the norms established by the Geneva Conventions and other international agreements that impose limits on the military actions, which is why it is legitimate not only to attack them, but also to arrest and condemn them in court in case of capture.
Indeed, the constant arrival of mercenaries has already become a serious problem in Ukraine. The regime seems more and more interested in seeking an external source of human resources to continue fighting NATO’s proxy war against Russia. Ukraine does not have enough reserve forces to keep combating in the long term, as losses are heavy and continuous. Hence, Kiev seeks to recruit as many foreigners as possible, promising the mercenaries rewards such as high salaries and Ukrainian citizenship.
Often, these promises are not fulfilled, with soldiers being deceived and not receiving the pledged money. With its economy devastated by the consequences of the conflict and the state controlled by a complex network of corrupt officials, Ukraine is unable to pay the salaries of all troops, which results in defaults. Therefore, despite the number of mercenaries continuing to increase, there have been more and more rumors about conflicts of interest and internal disputes, with foreign soldiers refusing to risk their lives in some dangerous missions.
There are many different types of mercenaries in the Ukrainian troops, however most of them are characterized by a common aspect, which is the previous connection to extremist, racist, ultranationalist ideas and terrorist practices. Moscow has been working intensively to identify foreigners who have joined Kiev, which is why it is known that almost all pro-Ukraine militants are somehow linked to these ideologies in their home countries.
Radical Islamists, neo-Nazis, ultra-rightists and other similar groups are among the most sought after by Western intelligence to be recruited for service in Ukraine. These militants are easier to be indoctrinated to hate Russia and fight for Kiev, having even extra-economic motivations to participate in the conflict, since they really believe that fighting Russia is the “right thing to do”. They share the ideology of the post-Maidan Ukrainian state, becoming many times more radical than the Ukrainian soldiers themselves, who are forced to fight regardless of ideology.
In practice, it ends up creating a vicious cycle, as the West foments these anti-Russian and racist thoughts in society through the mainstream media. The dissemination of this mentality helps to form new neo-Nazi militants, who, in turn, are interested in fighting for Ukraine. Kiev’s Western sponsors, in the end, are helping to form an international mercenary network of fanatical anti-Russian soldiers willing to fight Moscow, both for the money and because they have been indoctrinated to do so.
To face this problem, Russia has adopted a clear strategy of eliminating foreign enemy soldiers. In the past, Russia has made it a priority to neutralize native Ukrainian mercenaries, those linked to neo-Nazi organizations such as the Azov Battalion. Although these extremist militias still exist, most of their troops have already been decimated and those who surrendered are imprisoned and being tried in court, given that mercenaries are not treated as prisoners of war, but as common criminals.
Having already destroyed many Ukrainian neo-Nazi regiments, the focus is now on eliminating foreign mercenaries of the “International Legion”. There are two reasons why Moscow is markedly targeting mercenaries. One is that it is necessary to somehow eliminate these soldiers to discourage the arrival of new mercenaries, since the constant flow of foreign “volunteers” prolongs the conflict by helping Kiev to replace its casualties.
The other reason is to destroy the worldwide network of mercenaries being formed by NATO. Moscow’s intelligence has data showing that NATO is monitoring the entire mercenary recruitment process, establishing a systematic process of transferring extremist militants from many countries to Ukraine. This means that NATO is creating a kind of “reserve army” at its disposal to deploy on battlefields around the world.
The problem seen by the Russians goes far beyond the Ukrainian issue. Just as these mercenaries are fighting in Ukraine today, in the future they could be deployed in the Sahel against pro-Russian African governments or in Taiwan to fight China. In the same vein, if new flanks against Russia emerge in countries like Georgia and Moldavia, NATO is also expected to send its mercenaries to kill Russians there. So, it is vital for Moscow that this international network be destroyed – and eliminating as many mercenaries as possible in Ukraine seems to be the only way to achieve this goal.
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‘mercenaries illegal’, not by international standards. they are hired by the govt of ukraine and are therefore agents of ukraine. as long as they wear uniforms, the geneva convention considers them combatants.
they are not citizens of ukraine which is participant in this war nor they were living in ukraine before this war, or related to ukraine anyhow except by a money payed by kiev regime (which is payed by washington actually, ukraine has defaulted long time ago). and are controlled by a terrorist organization – nato. putting ukro uniform on them is just a way to circumvent convention. wagner is hired by a syrian and african governments and us gangsters sought to declare them terrorists.
wagner does not wear syrian or african uniforms but their own and they do not pretend to act they are not mercenaries.
wake up! wagner is the very definition of a mercenary group, or soldiers of fortune. what uniform its soldiers wear is irrelevant, the only questions are (1) which side pays them and (2) which side is it fighting against.
you adress exactly the problem russia has with wagner. they are effective but finally cause more problems than they solve. that’s why the reasonable try of putin to integrate the group in the russian army. long term the mercenaries must vanish , if some art of international peace order should emerge.
in short term it’s only possible to restrain their activities as much as possible.
this is the very issue that i keep banging on about. as of july 1st, following the mutiny and rushed state duma legislation, wg pmc was to be dissolved; with all contracts picked up by the rus military as a step towards integration. instead (a month later) prigo was in st ptburg selling wg pmc services at the africa summit. as long as wg remains a loose cannon for sale it is a potential liability to rus (& pres p, ultimately, is responsible).
the “international brigade” in spain in the 1930’s who fought in the spanish civil war, and who didn’t achieve much, were by default mercenaries.
the geneva conventions declare that mercenaries are not recognized as legitimate combatants and do not have to be granted the same legal protections as captured service personnel of the armed forces…
wikipedia / wiki / mercenary
to im veľmi pomôže, že? rusi by ich mali likvidovať a nemali by ich vôbec brať do zajatia. prišli vraždiť ruských občanov tak čo s takou chamraďou?
shut up, you fat loser moron
chubby chuba, playing the banderite tuba. lol
the description is false , “hired by the govt of ukraine” is not enough to become later automatically prisoner of war nach geneva convention. also the ukrainian tricks to make a right-wing daenish extremist in 2 hours a citizen of ukraine etc doesn’t change the status of mercenary. he is not ukrainian by nationality , nor he is a resident of ukraine nor a member of a regular ukrainian army. he is exactly a mercenary , no more no less.
so, the russkies will just kill them and strip off their uniforms, you know – like we do in our wars, except the reverse – kill the civilians and then dress them up in uniforms and throw a busted rifle to their side. dun killed me anuther dang terrorist! purple heart time – come home to poppa!
hell, they’ll just tos ’em and who’ll know the difference. one crispy critter looks like any other. heck, their dog tags even melt into a lump.
thank you american government and thank you to the overly generous american taxpayer for no longer requiring russia to travel all the way to syria, libya or parts of africa to eliminate thugs, terrorist and hired murderers. because of your support russia can now kill all of them on its doorstep. we always knew al -qaeda was nothing but a “rent-a-jihadist” operation. now russia is doing the cleaning
bueno rusia también debería hacer lo mismo para cuidar sus reservas, podría reclutar mercenarios sirios, iraníes, de corea del norte y de países aliados de rusia.
to je dobre, že im neplatia čo im nasľubovali. aspoň sa poučia ak náhodou medzi tým neskapú. každému čo jeho je. a toto si tí debili zvolili sami. keď ich rusi budú trhať na kusy tak to nikoho nemusí trápiť. bola to ich voľba.
time to use some bio chemicals.
black flag, good for lice, termites and best of all, neocon parasites.
i’m a card-carrying national socialist. my call sign is gorring88. i like lots of battlefield gore and want to be trained by the faggot wokey americans so i can kick their asses later, like that isis bunch in syria. where can i sign up?
on a historical note, towards the end of the roman empire, the ‘roman legions’ had large numbers of none romans in their ranks. history tends to repeat itself. there is a potus election next year, and depending on who wins it if nato and the us doesn’t want ukraine to be totally defeated it will have to get directly involved, it is now just a matter of time to see if they do.