The Crisis Of Mercenarism. Foreign Fighters In The AFU Become A Factor Of Destabilization

Click to see the full-size image

On February 27, 2022, a few days after the start of the Special military operation, the International Legion of Territorial Defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was created by the decree of President Vladimir Zelenskyy. According to The Kyiv Independent, the number of foreign nationals in the ranks of the AFU reaches 20,000 people. Estimates from the other side are more modest. In April 2024, the Investigative Committee of Russia, which is responsible for documenting the facts of mercenarism, estimated the number of foreigners in the Ukrainian army at 3,100 people. Most of them, according to Alexander Bastrykin’s office, are Americans (816 fighters), Canadians (719), Britons (694) and Georgians (712). The issue here is likely to be those who are in the military on a specific date.

On March 14, 2024, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that 13,387 mercenaries had arrived in Ukraine since February 24, 2022. Of these, 5,962 were eliminated by Russian forces. In general, these figures are roughly comparable to the Ukrainian data. On the one hand, the number of mercenaries is very large. If we take the figure of 20,000 people as a basis, it is more than the armed forces of a country such as Croatia (i.e. personnel on permanent service). On the other hand, the scale of the current war offsets the magnitude of this figure. Vladimir Zelensky told The Economist in an interview this week that the staff of territorial manning centers mobilizes 30,000 people every month. And this rate of mobilization is clearly insufficient to make up for the losses.

Photos taken by one of the mercenaries on the Pokrovsk direction. Most of the mercenaries in the photos are from the USA, Colombia, Brazil, Germany and Georgia

Mercenaries dance on the Kharkiv direction

Foreign mercenaries play more of a symbolic role. Their presence creates the illusion of support for Ukraine around the world and boosts the morale of the Ukrainian population. This factor cannot be written off. The hope for a “third force” to come and save everyone was well illustrated a hundred years ago by Mikhail Bulgakov, a classical Russian writer and native of Kiev, in his novel “The White Guard”. “Well, well, if you will listen, please. The Prince himself told me today that transports are already being unloaded in the port of Odessa: Greeks and two divisions of Senegalese have arrived. We should hold out for a week – and we don’t give a damn about the Germans,” – staff officer Leonid Shervinsky reassures the main heroes.

Only today, instead of “two divisions of Senegalese”, it’s a Foreign Legion of Americans, Canadians, and other Westerners. However, after three years of war, first of all, the number of fighting foreigners has decreased. This was due to catastrophic losses. Not at all pro-Trump, but Democratic-oriented CNN reported a sharp increase in the number of killed US citizens. With the help of foreigners, Ukrainian commanders are trying to fill the gaps in their defenses. Twenty Americans are missing. The bodies of some still can’t be recovered from the battlefield.

«The true death toll among American volunteers in Ukraine remains unclear, Guillaume [American volunteer in Kiev] said. She believes the rising number of dead and missing is down to foreigners being sent to tough, frontline areas where their prior military experience is needed. “We find that foreign operators do fill the gaps of very difficult, high-risk, high-reward operations. Their lives and their sacrifice are not wasted.”», – CNN says.

The argument that American lives are not given in vain still doesn’t inspire potential volunteers.

“This is my third war, and it’s by far the worst. You get crushed by artillery, by tanks. Last week they dropped a bomb from a plane next to us, 300 meters away. It’s horrible shit,” says former Marine Troy Offenbecker.

Troy Offenbecker

“The worst day in Afghanistan or Iraq is the best day in Ukraine. But even on the worst days, we always tried to control the situation, unlike the Ukrainian commanders,” the Daily Beast quotes former Ranger David Bramlett as saying.

It is not only the citizens of the United States of America who are suffering losses. The TASS news agency quotes the words of residents evacuated from the Krasnoarmeysk (Pokrovsk) district:

“We had mercenaries from Colombia in our settlement for a long time, everyone knew about their origin, it was no secret. There were many of them, the group was quite large. Just before we were evacuated, they were all hit at once”. Huge losses are gradually becoming a factor that reduces the flow of mercenaries from poor Latin American countries. It is no longer a way to earn a living, but a “one-way ticket”.

Pablo Puentes Segura from Colombia. He was captured in the Russian Kursk region

On February 12, the Swiss Foreign Ministry for the first time officially confirmed the death of its citizen in the ranks of the Ukrainian armed forces. No details were given about the unit and place of death. However, it is reported that the military judicial authorities are investigating 13 people for participation in the conflict. The fact is that the Swiss Confederation is formally a neutral state. Participation in foreign wars is forbidden by law. But politicians are increasingly calling for the law to be “adapted” because Swiss mercenaries are fighting for a “just cause”. Bern’s neutrality can be reasonably questioned. The Swiss authorities have given Ukraine some 2.5 billion dollars in aid since the beginning of the war.

Patrick Schaerre, 44yo, Swiss Maltese, from Gharghur, Malta but also lived in Zurich, Switzerland. Patrick and his unit also participated in Kursk offensive in August 2024 where they are still being sent to.

Second, the authority of foreign fighters has diminished. This is due to the numerous scandals involving mercenaries. On February 11, 2025, according to Bild, Ukrainian law enforcement arrested a German Foreign Legion fighter, Ben R. He is suspected of committing sexual crimes and publishing rape videos on the Internet.

Ben Levent von Rombs

Thousands of photos and videos were found in the mercenary’s Bavarian apartment, showing the “warrior’s” predilection for pedophilia. The case against the mercenary in Germany has been ongoing since 2021. This did not prevent him from fighting on the side of Ukraine. In 2022, Ben R. was banned from taking part in battles and wearing a military uniform. However, in 2023 he somehow found his way back to the front and fought in Bakhmut against the PMC “Wagner”. He was wounded and even gave an interview to the Bild newspaper about his “heroic” adventures. Western journalists were not at all embarrassed by the soldier’s background.

Brutal crimes are committed by foreign mercenaries in the occupied parts of the Kursk region. According to former DPR Information Minister Daniil Bezsonov, at least 300 foreigners are fighting in Kursk. Residents of the Suzhansky district told Russian investigators that even the AFU soldiers themselves warned them about the brutality of the mercenaries.

“They said: leave if you can, get out of here, otherwise these Poles will come. They mocked us,” says a survivor who left the captured territories. Numerous reports of crimes against civilians, often linked to the actions of foreigners, do not add to the credibility of the Foreign Legion.

If mercenaries are a destabilizing factor in Ukraine today, in the near future they may become a serious headache for the West itself. Hundreds of veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq joined the ranks of murderers and madmen after returning home. However, these were regular soldiers who had all the social guarantees and could count on the professional help of psychologists from numerous organizations supporting veterans of combat operations. In the case of Ukraine, mercenaries have no guarantees and act as “wild geese”. North America and Western Europe risk a crime wave that is also closely linked to the shadowy Ukrainian arms market.

MORE ON THE TOPIC:

• Russian Army Grinds Ukrainian Reserve Brigades, Foreign Mercenaries, Surrounds Pokrovsk
• Foreign Mercenaries Continue to Die in Ukraine – 6.5 Thousand Dead
• Mercenaries Eager For Money But Do Not Want To Die For Ukraine