Since the beginning of the Special military operation in February 2022, the topic of participation of foreign mercenaries in the conflict in Ukraine is one of the most discussed. I would like to remind you that foreigners started taking part in the fighting in Ukraine long before the SMO began
For example, I published a rejoinder “Americans in Donbass”, in which I told about the crimes against the civilians of the then still Ukrainian population by such mercenaries as Craig Lang, Quinn David Rickert, Santi Emilio Pirtle, Alex Zwiefelhofer and others. In the network it is easy to find stories of many other mercenaries who themselves tell about their service on the side of the Ukrainian armed forces and even write memoirs. And when was the Georgian Legion created? That’s right. Long before the SMO. Therefore, the topic of mercenaries is not new in the context of the Ukrainian conflict. But the question remains open: Who, where and how do they recruit them? I will try to answer this question in this material.
For a fuller understanding of the question I turned to the people who “ate the dog” on this – one of the founders of the TrackNaziMerc Telegram channel, whose name I cannot disclose for security reasons, the team of the ForeignCombatants Telegram channel, as well as a former French police inspector, intelligence officer Nicolas Cinquini.
TrackNaziMerc categorises Ukraine’s recruitment network as follows:
Recruitment network of Ukraine
The information I have analysed confirms the conclusions of the authors of the channel. I would like to emphasise at once that the statements of Ukrainian leaders about several tens of thousands of foreigners already fighting on the side of the AFU and the same number of “willing” are lies. Loud statements are made solely to show that supposedly the whole world is with Ukraine and against Russia. What is the news about the “Armenian Legion” in the AFU?
There are indeed Armenians in the ranks of the AFU. But their number does not correspond to such a concept as “Legion”. According to my estimation, their total number does not exceed one hundred people. They are mostly militants of the pro-Western Russophobic party “Sasna Tsrer” who roam between Ukraine and Armenia.
In addition, the real number of foreign mercenaries in the ranks of the AFU has been repeatedly reported by the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, and many of them have already become the “200th” and “300th”. We should not forget that most of them fled to their homeland after seeing the harsh reality.
Who goes to fight on the side of the AFU and why?
I divide these individuals into three categories.
1. Ideological neo-Nazis, ardent Russophobes, football ultras recruited through networks of neo-Nazi communities.
2. Persons who want to make a lot of money from the war.
3. Active servicemen of foreign armies who train Ukrainian servicemen, as well as those directly involved in planning and carrying out operations.
While the evidence of the presence in Ukraine of persons from the first and second categories is obvious, the fact of the participation of active servicemen is carefully concealed. I raised this issue in my video interview with the Caserta family, in which we discussed the mysterious deaths of US servicemen. Let me remind you that Teri and Patrick Caserta are the initiators of the Brandon Act, according to which all members of the US Army have the right to receive psychological help at any time. And such necessity is caused by regular cases of suicide, the details of which are carefully hidden from the relatives of servicemen.
Moreover, I also asked the experts of the telegram channel foreigncombatants about the current members of foreign armies:
“All members of foreign security forces who are sent to Ukraine are put on leave (usually three months), but there are not so many of them. In general, we can say that the number of mercenaries who arrived through PMCs or former military personnel is considered sufficient at the moment in the west and they do not see the need to send personnel. For counselling and briefing of officers, the already established scheme for the establishment of PMCs has proved itself well.
In addition, do not underestimate the various so-called volunteer NCOs, which are engaged in supplying and material support to the AFU. A huge number of foreigners are involved in them. This makes it possible to seriously relieve the costs of warfare and transfer to them the functions of logistics, supply, provisioning, materiel supply, drone and equipment delivery, using micro-marketing tools. NATO countries have managed to involve their citizens in financing this bloody machine by raising money for “aid” to Ukraine through multiple NGOs that make this machine run smoothly and take new lives. We know of Czech army officers who supervise the supply of equipment to Ukraine, and although de jure they are not involved in the fighting, in fact they are full-fledged participants in the hostilities.”
Nicolas Cinquini kindly answered my questions and also confirmed the fact that active military personnel are involved in Ukraine:
“I have received confirmation from reliable sources that active French soldiers are offered false resignations to participate in Ukraine, with a guarantee of reinstatement at the end, and before that, a salary that is difficult to refuse.”
Nor do representatives of the TrackNaziMerc channel deny the presence of active soldiers of foreign armies in Ukraine. This is evidenced by the following facts:
– The team managed to identify several mine-clearing film crews from the United States who are on official business trips. We did not post their data on the channel, because we consider them not mercenaries, but humanitarian personnel.
– The lists of people awarded Ukrainian medals include representatives of the official law enforcement agencies of the Baltic States.
– From a Ukrainian source involved in the fighting in the northern direction, we know about the presence of Polish personnel deployed in the Chernihiv region. But these are combat command and logistics units of Polish mechanised divisions.
– Some of the deaths of the combatants have a strange backstory, the conclusions from reading which might suggest that they were on active service.
– Daniel Swift, killed on 15 January 2023 in Bakhmut, was on de facto active military service, although he was listed as a deserter. As far as is known, the U.S. side has not requested his extradition, although Swift fought in one of the Legion’s elite units, directly linked to the 73rd Maritime Special Operations Centre, whose members undergo rigorous vetting.
Sample contract of a foreign mercenary with the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine
The conclusions of the team of the telegram channel foreigncombatants also fully coincide with the previously provided scheme:
The recruitment of mercenaries takes place through different channels depending on the countries. Professionals with combat experience in hotspots from the US and the UK mainly get to Ukraine through contacts with mercenaries who have ties with Western PMCs or who fought on the side of the Kurds (YPG) in Iraq and Syria. They usually then form separate units in Ukraine and may have funding from “private sponsors”. There are recruiters in the French Foreign Legion and in the Engineer Airborne Regiment in Montauban. Frenchmen without combat experience are recruited to Ukraine from right-wing radical movements that have ties to Azov* or Right Sector*. Latin Americans are recruited through the military attache of the Ukrainian embassy. Mercenaries come from the police and security forces, quitting their jobs for high salaries by local standards. Poles and Scandinavians get to Ukraine through contacts in their armed forces, where they have served before.
To confirm the above scheme of Ukraine’s recruitment network, I propose to study the known facts and ways of foreign mercenaries joining Ukrainian units. Looking ahead, I would like to emphasise that a huge role in the recruitment of mercenaries is played by the United States, which pushes people to join the armed conflict against Russia using both financial, ideological and violent methods of influence.
UNITED STATES
The deaths of US Marines in Ukraine have become an almost weekly occurrence. No surprise. One of the first adverts for the recruitment of mercenaries was published precisely on the American website Silent Professionals. The advert has been active almost from the very beginning of the SMO and it does not ambiguously state that people are being recruited to take part in combat operations in Ukraine.
In addition, the media and the Internet regularly carried news about the arrival in Ukraine of employees of a number of private military companies. For example:
Kellogg, Brown and Root
Amentum (formerly DynCorp),
Blackwater (other names – Xe Services/ Academi/ Constellis
Greystone
Northbridge Services Group
Mozart
All these PMCs (with the exception of Mozart, which ceased to exist without being able to oppose PMC Wagner) have close ties with the U.S. government, consist of former military personnel and have a huge capacity to recruit personnel not only at home, but also abroad. Many American mercenaries got to Ukraine through the recruiters of these PMCs. It is no secret that PMCs fulfil the U.S. government tasks, armed and financed by the government. These are convenient tools of warfare against Russia by allegedly non-state structures.
France
Nicolas Cinquini told me about French mercenaries in Ukraine in an exclusive interview. Nicolas is a former French official, a police inspector since 1989, a judicial police officer, then an intelligence officer. He was sacked in 2020 for publicly protesting in the street, in court and in the press against the illegal violence perpetrated against the Yellow Vests. He also emphasises the US role in fuelling the conflict in Ukraine:
“I see the conflict in Donbass and Ukraine as a new illustration of the proxy wars that the Western bloc is waging against Russia, China and all those who dare to oppose its hegemony. I began to take a real interest in this issue in 2014, as I did not understand France’s support for the Islamist uprising in Syria. My blog activity intensified during the blockade of Mariupol. A number of clues led me to speculate that there were active French civil servants there alongside the Ukrainian garrison. To confirm this theory, I began to gather information about French mercenaries operating in Ukraine. I realised that many of them were supporters of neo-Nazi ideas, whom the French press tried to whitewash and turn into heroes. In my opinion, the dead Frenchman Thibault Rigon, posthumously awarded by Zelensky, could have been an active civil servant, as there are a lot of mysterious circumstances around his death, and I am trying to clarify all the details.
It is noteworthy that a large number of mercenaries with neo-Nazi views did arrive from France and the work to attract them to Ukraine is actively continuing until now. Thus, in October 2023, the website of the neo-Nazi Azov* appeared in French, the main task of which is to find radicals to join the unit.
A screenshot from Azov’s French website
United Kingdom
There is little information in the public domain about the activities of British organisations recruiting fighters to Ukraine. The bulk of mercenaries arrive by signing a contract with the Ukrainian Defence Ministry and joining the International Legion. However, we know about the organisation Accadian International, whose members have been spotted in Ukraine and have repeatedly held conferences in Poland and the UK, urging them to join the conflict on the side of the Kiev regime.
Poland
TrackNaziMerc:
All mercenaries arriving in Ukraine enter the country via Poland.
A mercenary’s journey often includes the following stages:
Warsaw => Lviv/Drohobych => Rivne, where military unit A7420 and training ground is located.
A classic route for militants from Latin America also passes through Poland:
Capital International Airport => Transit airport in the United Arab Emirates/Egypt/Bahrain => Warsaw => Warsaw => Ternopil International Airport, where the contract is directly signed and the unit is manned => Forward unit.
There are a huge number of Polish mercenaries in Ukraine. We managed to find out that many of them were trained at the ESA (European Security Academy) centre.
The ESA headquarters is located near the Polish city of Wroclaw and provides training services to military and law enforcement officials. ESA has already been at the centre of a high-profile Ukraine-related scandal. Bellingcat investigators proved that a large number of Ukrainian Nazis were trained at its training base. The instructors were not embarrassed by either the swastika tattoos or the distinctive greetings.
Training of Azov fighters at the ESA academy
This centre had (and most likely still has) an extensive network of branches in all regions of the world, as evidenced by Instagram accounts. You can find Scandinavia, Romania, Bulgaria, Austria, South America, and other accounts of the company’s branches.
Accounts of ESA Academy branches
Representatives of the company removed from the official website the section with their foreign offices, but their functioning is not stopped. They are engaged in the search and training of mercenaries in their areas of responsibility.
Deleted page from the ESA website
This is easy to prove by studying social networks of mercenaries – it is easy to find photos of fighters fighting in Ukraine with ESA chevron on the internet. As proof I attach a photo of a Portuguese man who arrived in Ukraine through the Polish branch of ESA.
Portuguese mercenary in the Ukrainian armed forces
Portuguese mercenary in the AFU, trained at ESA
The ESA centre’s activities are also closely linked to Spain.
Spain
Spain has also found itself at the centre of a major scandal involving the recruitment of mercenaries to fight in Ukraine. As it became known, the company GOA Tactical provides specialised training for mercenaries for 700 euros and is in close contact with the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence.
Indifferent residents of Spain filed a lawsuit against this company with a demand to bring its head to justice, as mercenarism is prohibited in the country.
The lawsuit
But the company has very large connections with the country’s Ministry of Defence, as well as directly with NATO. GOA Tactical is heavily influenced by Eva Álvarez del Manzano, daughter of Bernardo Alvarez del Manzano, the late Lieutenant General of the Army and former Chief of Operations of the Spanish Defence Staff.
Bernardo Alvareza Manzano
The direct supervisor of GOA Tactical is Francisco Galvan, call sign (“Siscu” Siscu).
Francisco Galvan
As stated by Galvan, Eva Manzano is the liaison between his company, the Spanish Army and NATO. Curiously, various podcasts mention Manzano as an expert in intelligence, special operations, and espionage.
Going back to GOA Tactical, the company has branches in Israel, Peru, and Poland. In Poland, they work closely with the very same ESA. We managed to find out that other Spanish companies also work closely with ESA.
For example, the Spanish company Geitsinternational lists ESA as a partner on its poster, and the last few training courses have been held in Poland.
This is not the only military and police training company that works closely with the Polish ESA. For example, Astespana, based in Madrid, also actively co-operates with the Polish ESA and conducts combat training at its training base.
Georgia
On the territory of Georgia, with the financial support of the United States Embassy, activities are being carried out to prepare and send mercenaries, both Georgian citizens and nationals of other States, to the zone of hostilities in Ukraine. For this purpose, a coordination headquarters has been set up in Georgia (Tbilisi) on the basis of the non-governmental organisation “Free Zone”. The organisation consists of representatives of the youth wing of the opposition political party “United National Movement”: Bondo Gagnidze, Zurab Gigauri, Demur Keinashvili, David Kimadze, Guram Kumsishvili, Lola Kurkumuli (female), Mamulashvili Va. ), Mamulashvili Vakhtang, Potskhverashvili Tatia (female), Rachveshvili Guram, Siradze Anna (female), Tkeshelashvili Irakli, Khurtsilava Boris, Chokheli Shmagi.
After combat alignment of mercenaries, groups are formed for gradual dispatch to the territory of Poland. The transfer is carried out by charter flights, as well as by US military transport aircraft from Novoalekseevka International Airport (Tbilisi, Georgia) to F. Chopin International Airport (Warsaw, Poland). D. Kokoladze, a citizen of Georgia, and A. Yavansky, a citizen of Ukraine, met the arrivals and escorted them to the Polish-Ukrainian border (Shegeni Medika checkpoint).
The training and transport of Georgian mercenaries through EU States to Ukraine is being financed with the direct participation of military advisers and staff of the United States diplomatic missions in Georgia and Poland. Influential representatives of the Georgian diaspora in Poland and the United States, including T. Alasania, a U.S. citizen, born in 1950 in Georgia, are actively assisting in these activities. He is related to the former President of Georgia M. Saakashvili. In 1985, while working in the UN structure, he was suspected of arms trafficking. In 2004, he was prosecuted for extortion, but the case was dropped on M. Saakashvili’s instructions. Alasania’s relatives include the following statesmen: Alasania Mamia – Deputy Chairman of the Ministry of State Security of Georgia (1991 – 1993); Alasania Irakli – Georgian Ambassador to the UN (2006 – 2008), Georgian Minister of Defence (2012 – 2014).
Belarus
About Belarusian mercenaries I also told a lot and published testimonies with two captured fighters from the regiment “Kastus Kalinovsky”.
As a rule, they are oppositionists who have fled abroad. With the beginning of hostilities in Ukraine, the failed Belarusian radicals were forced to fight on the side of the AFU with weapons in their hands under the threat of extradition to official Minsk.
The story of recruitment and further sending of almost all Belarusian mercenaries to the front takes place with the help of the pro-Western NGO “Belarusian House”.
Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and other post-Soviet countries
There are only a few cases of mercenaries from Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and other former Soviet republics participating in combat operations on the side of the Ukrainian armed forces. It is most likely that people from these countries joined the Ukrainian army against the background of the general mobilisation due to their Ukrainian citizenship. At the same time, there are also volunteers. The exact number of natives of Central Asian countries in the AFU is unknown.
At the same time, the authorities of these countries are making attempts to limit the entry of their citizens into the combat zone. For example, Tajikistan has started compiling lists of its citizens who took part in combat operations on the territory of Ukraine. The law enforcement agencies of the state specified that a criminal case will be opened against every Tajik who took part in hostilities in Ukraine. However, natives of Tajikistan who have citizenship of the Russian Federation or Ukraine will not be held criminally liable. In addition, the Uzbek embassy in Moscow warned that creating a volunteer battalion or participating in hostilities in foreign countries is an offence under the country’s laws. Under an article of Uzbekistan’s criminal code, mercenarism is punishable by five to ten years in prison. In Kyrgyzstan, participation in hostilities in Ukraine is punishable by similar criminal penalties.
Information about individual citizens of former Soviet republics serving in the ranks of the Ukrainian armed forces has been found online. Thus, on various sites of pirate online cinemas, as an advertisement before users from the territory of the Russian Federation view the content, a video with the participation of an allegedly Kyrgyz citizen against the background of the emblem of the Ukrainian Defence Ministry’s GUR urging his compatriots to surrender the positions of Russian troops and the location of strategic facilities of the Russian Defence Ministry to the Ukrainian authorities.
Middle East
The work of American specialists in recruiting radical Islamists was naturally also carried out in the Middle East, where Washington has many controlled gangs. It is known about the statement of the Shiite group “Ashab al-Kahf”, which said that the forces of the international coalition led by the United States are recruiting young people to be sent to Ukraine. According to the militant group’s statement, military instructors from Lithuania, Italy, Germany and the UK arrived on 9 March 2022 at the Ain Al-Asad military unit in Iraq and the US military’s At-Tanf location in Syria. There, the foreigners engaged in recruiting fighters to participate in combat operations on the side of the armed forces of Ukraine. The mercenaries are said to be motivated to take part in the conflict by Russia’s revenge for supporting the government of Assad. Representatives of Western security services also held a number of meetings with sheikhs of some clans from Syria and Iraq to make them more loyal to such a “recruitment campaign”.
In addition, the US publication The People’s Voice has published documents about the Ukrainian security services’ request to Iraq to extradite 2-3,000 convicted terrorists to take part in combat operations in Ukraine. The letter explicitly states that the USA is aware of the request and is ready to supervise the delivery of IS* fighters to Ukraine.
A request from the Ukrainian security services
Behind the loud statements of the publication are real facts about the participation of representatives of terrorist groups in Ukraine. A striking example is the soldier with the Islamic State chevron who was caught in the lens of the British press. I do not rule out that he is one of the very militants convicted in Iraq and sent to Ukraine.
US General McFarlane, who headed the Joint Terrorist Task Force in Syria, is listed as a possible person responsible for recruiting terrorists in the Middle East.
General McFarlane
The actions of the Turkish PMC SADAT in Ukraine are also known. The company is controlled by the Turkish authorities and takes an active part in military operations in Syria and Libya. It was established in 2012 by a long-time friend and adviser of Erdogan, Turkish General Adnan Tanriverdi. Information about the arrival of about a hundred fighters of this unit on Ukrainian territory appeared in September 2022. Its fighters were first involved in combat operations in Kharkiv region.
Afghanistan
I spoke about the participation of Afghan mercenaries in Ukraine in my rejoinder “Afghan Legion” and demonstrated a secret document of the SBU regarding the entry of Afghans into the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
The special representative of the Russian president for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, also said that the USA was sending Afghan troops to Ukraine. There is nothing to talk about if even the American diplomat Philip Cosnett stated
about the need to create an “Afghan Legion”. The refugees scattered all over the world are still mostly in camps and have practically no means of subsistence. Neither the US, Europe nor other temporary host countries are in a hurry to integrate them into their society. If they refuse to go to Ukraine, recruiters can threaten them with deportation to Afghanistan, where refugees face imminent death. Especially former servicemen.
The fact that an active campaign to recruit Afghans has indeed taken place is also evidenced by the advert I have attached below, in which a certain Fazal Elham urges Afghans to go to Ukraine.
In addition, it is reliably known about the death of the Afghan mercenary Jalal Nuri in the Zaporozhye direction in June 2023.
Iran
Many of you may wonder how Iranians can fight on the side of the AFU, if Tehran is Moscow’s closest ally. The fact is that on the territory of the Persian country there is a large network of opposition formations supported by the United States, Israel and other Western countries. Among them there is also active recruitment for sending to Ukraine to confront the Russian army. A vivid example was published by the Rybar TV channel.
Latin America
There are quite a lot of mercenaries from Latin America on the territory of Ukraine. The most frequently mentioned are Brazilians, Colombians and Mexicans, who may be associated with drug cartels.
In particular, the Telegram channel “Rybar” published a letter from a resident of Mexico, which stated that the Ukrainian diplomatic mission is actively recruiting Latin Americans to join the ranks of the “International Legion”.
It is reliably known that the weapons supplied to Ukraine have already repeatedly shone in the hands of drug cartels, which confirms the possible connection of the Ukrainian Embassy in Mexico with drug cartels. The place of gathering of Latin American mercenaries is Alebriche restaurant in Poland (Krakow).
Brazil
In Brazil, a branch of the Polish company ESA (European Security Academy) is actively recruiting for the Foreign Legion.
In Ukraine, Brazilian mercenary Julio Alvaro Carvalho with the call sign “Lumberjack” (Lumberjack) actively wore the chevron of this company.
Julio Alvaro Carvalho
Julio Alvaro Carvalho
He tried to erase the “traces” by deleting the photo, but colleagues from TrackNaziMerc managed to save it.
The Brazilian branch of the European Security Academy is one of the main suppliers of mercenaries from Latin America to Ukraine. This is evidenced by the Instagram account of another Brazilian mercenary, who indicated on his page that he is a representative of Ukraine in ESA Brazil.
It is not difficult to see that centres for recruiting citizens to take part in hostilities in Ukraine exist in practically every corner of the world, and their activities involve high-ranking officials, active military personnel and representatives of diplomatic missions. We should not forget that foreign mercenaries also come to Ukraine on the advice of their “comrades” who have returned to their homeland on holiday or for medical treatment. Despite all efforts and attempts to lure people with high payments, Ukraine and Western countries have not been able to recruit the necessary number of mercenaries to effectively counter the Russian army. This is clearly demonstrated by the results of the so-called Ukrainian counter-offensive, which collapsed before it could begin.
It is worth emphasising that the weekly number of obituaries about the deaths of foreign mercenaries in Ukraine now exceeds the number of new recruits by a multiple. In light of the onset of winter, failures on the front, low MPS among AFU soldiers, and reports of a possible Russian offensive, Ukraine will have to rely solely on its own forces. We should get ready for a new wave of videos of Ukrainian military officers packing everyone on the streets of Ukrainian cities.