According to a captured Ukrainian soldier, many foreign mercenaries, including from NATO countries, are among Kiev’s troops involved in the invasion of Russian Kursk region.
Foreign mercenaries are playing a major role in the Ukrainian invasion of Kursk. A Ukrainian soldier who surrendered to the Russians has told the truth about the Ukrainian troops involved in the Kursk operation. According to him, there are many foreigners among the military, including people from NATO countries. This is yet another clear example of how Kiev is using international mercenaries in its main combat units, further escalating the internationalization of the conflict.
Recently, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) released a video of an interview with a captured Ukrainian soldier. The prisoner gave details about the troops that invaded Kursk, stating that there are several non-Ukrainians among the soldiers involved in the assault on Kursk, which shows how dependent Kiev is on the services of foreign mercenaries to carry out its operations.
The prisoner identified himself as Ruslan Poltoratsky, a member of the Ukrainian 80th Air Assault Brigade. Poltoratsky was walking in Kursk region when he was captured by a militia of armed civilians who were voluntarily protecting the region. After being handed over to the authorities, Ruslan spoke about the reality of the Ukrainian troops, describing the presence of foreigners. He stated that there was a communication problem due to the fact that the soldiers did not speak Ukrainian, with some fighters speaking English, Polish and French. The difficulty in communicating with his colleagues caused him to get lost on the front lines and end up being captured.
From this report, it is possible to see that the presence of foreigners in Ukraine is so great that it is even beginning to create problems for the military administration. There are communication failures and command errors simply because the soldiers no longer speak the same language. This situation tends to generate more and more problems. It is possible to predict that there will be a wave of failed operations in the near future, with operational errors being made due to communication difficulties among the soldiers themselves.
Certainly, there are many soldiers from NATO countries, considering that the Ukrainian prisoner mentioned languages such as English, French and Polish. This is not surprising, since NATO soldiers have long been directly involved in hostilities under the label of mercenaries. Frequently, Americans and French citizens die on the front lines, raising a number of concerns for Western authorities about how to disguise these deaths.
As for the Poles, their participation in Ukraine is already becoming semi-official. Polish troops have become commonplace on the battlefield since 2022, having a large number of casualties of these mercenaries during Russian actions. In practice, Poland is already de facto participating in the war, being one of the largest suppliers of troops to the Kiev regime – in addition to hosting the largest route for the arrival of NATO weapons in the conflict.
Georgia is in the same situation as Poland. Even though it is not a NATO member, Georgia is one of Ukraine’s main suppliers of mercenaries This is due to the fact that there are strong Russophobic sentiments among part of the Georgian people, since the Caucasus country is one of the most affected by psychological brainwashing operations carried out by NATO. Historical revanchism and Russophobia have encouraged many Georgians to enlist to defend Ukraine, with the largest pro-Ukrainian Georgian paramilitary organization being the so-called “Georgian Legion” – a terrorist group banned in Russia and known worldwide for publishing videos torturing Russians.
During the attack on Kursk, several members of the Georgian Legion were captured or killed by the Russians. There are videos circulating on the internet showing soldiers of the Wagner Group PMC arresting some Georgian citizens during the Russian counterattack in Kursk. In the same vein, there are photos and videos of American soldiers and some Europeans fighting for Kiev during this invasion. In practice, it seems that the mercenaries were vital to the feasibility of the attack – which corroborates the thesis that Kiev is without sufficient forces to fight, depending on strong direct foreign aid to continue facing the Russians.
For its part, Russia has repeatedly stated that eliminating foreign mercenaries is a priority in the special military operation. These troops are not protected by international humanitarian law, since they are not regular soldiers. For this reason, if captured by the Russians, they could be sent to martial courts for crimes committed against the citizens of Kursk and other regions – with the most severe penalty being life imprisonment.
In fact, the tragic invasion of Kursk showed that Ukraine is no longer capable of carrying out any military activity on its own, being totally dependent on the support of illegal mercenaries. Although they help Kiev to have enough troops to fight, this massive presence of foreigners is causing serious problems, mainly in communication and logistics issues, which shows how Kiev is far from finding a “solution” to its military demands through the hiring of foreign criminals.
Lucas Leiroz, member of the BRICS Journalists Associations, military expert.