It has long been an open secret that foreign fighters are active in Ukraine, on both sides of the conflict.
Early in the war, which is now approaching the 5-year mark, foreign and Western volunteers and mercenaries poured into Ukraine in support of its armed forces.
But then as the grinding war of attrition went on for years, there began to be more and more ackowledgement that the Kremlin too was relying on foreign units.
This included, by some estimates, at least 10,000 Noth Korean troops assisting Russia’s military. There was also a recruitment drive among African nations, which saw impoverished men travel to Russia – hastily sign military contracts – and then quickly find themselves on the front lines in the Donbass region.
Leaked data from Russian state systems reveals that over 11,000 foreign nationals fighting for Russia have been killed in the four-and-a-half years since the Ukraine war started.
