As the war in Ukraine rages on, Russia’s Ministry of Defense has released an alarming list of foreign nationalities supposedly fighting on Ukraine’s side.
On Thursday, the Russian MOD published a statement on its official Telegram channel, alleging that thousands of ‘mercenaries’ have joined the war. They said that they have tracked over 13,000 foreign nationals since the start of the war in February 2022.
Many of them have apparently been eliminated.
The Russians accused neighboring Poland of having the most foreign nationals in the war, with close to 3,000 of them, about half of them having been eliminated.
“The Russian Ministry of Defense continues to track and personally record all foreign mercenaries who arrived in Ukraine to participate in combat operations.
Since February 24, 2022, the total number of foreign mercenaries who arrived in Ukraine has amounted to 13,387. At the same time, the destruction of 5,962 foreign mercenaries has been confirmed to date.
The undisputed leader in terms of the number of killed fighters is Poland (2,960 arrived, 1,497 destroyed).”
Alarmingly, Kenya was also listed as one of 13 African countries that have sent ‘mercenaries’ to Ukraine. From the list, 5 Kenyans are said to be participating in the war, with zero deaths recorded.
Nigeria leads the continent with 97 fighters joining the Ukrainian side. In total, 249 Africans have fought for Ukraine, with 103 of them eliminated according to the Kremlin.
If the numbers are to be believed, it’s worth noting that any Kenyan fighting in the war joined on their own initiative, since the Government of Kenya has not officially sent boots on the ground.
