foreign mercenary
© AP Photo / Bernat ArmangueA foreign mercenary takes part in a mission in Kharkov region, Ukraine.
Russia's Defense Ministry issued a report Thursday which said its forces have killed nearly 6,000 foreign mercenaries and volunteers fighting on behalf of Ukraine since the war began over two years ago.

The report claimed that in total 13,387 "foreign mercenaries" from multiple dozens of countries have fought in Ukraine, and offered a remarkably specific breakdown of nationalities. International press outlets underscored that it was impossible to independently verify the claims.


Notably Russia claimed an astounding number of American mercenary deaths, putting the number killed from the United States at 491. The number of fighters killed who hailed from Britain was listed at 360, and Canada - 422, another surprisingly high figure according to the claims. But the Russian MoD's tally of Polish foreign fighters was by far the largest group - at 1,497 out of 2,690 fighters said to have been killed.

Within the first year of the Russian invasion, it was especially then UK Prime Minister Liz Truss who openly encouraged British and Western fighters to go volunteer to fight for Ukraine.

The US too at the time openly allowed recruitment efforts by Ukraine's international/foreign legion through online advertising including social media and large platforms like Facebook.

However, as the war tragically turned into a 'meat grinder' and stalled front lines, Western officials seemed to back off their active encouragement for individuals to travel to Ukraine to fight.

Since then, periodically Russia has claimed to have killed or taken prisoner American or UK citizens. Overall, the whole initiative didn't go well as stories like the below demonstrate...


Comment: Reported here: Briton kills himself on return from fighting for Ukraine, said he was 'inspired' by former PM Truss' 'illegal' call for volunteers


An example of a CBS headline during the early months of the war...

More recently, the Kremlin has claimed large numbers of French mercenaries are active in Ukraine, especially near Russia's border in Kharkiv. Paris has rejected the claims. At the same time, Russia too has been known to deploy foreign fighter in its ranks, but numbers are unknown.