Kiev’s claims that tens of thousands of foreign nationals have traveled to Ukraine to join its fight against Moscow are exaggerated, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday.
It released what it claimed to be accurate numbers of “mercenaries” fighting on Kiev’s side, including those who have died on the battlefield.
According to the statistics, a total of 6,956 foreign citizens from 64 nations arrived in Ukraine to become pro-Kiev combatants between February 24 and June 17. Some 1,956 of those have been killed, while 1,779 have left the country, the ministry said.
According to the Russian figures, the largest number of fighters came from Poland, with 1,831 of its citizens joining the Ukrainian ranks. The Eastern European nation was followed by Canada, the US, Romania and the UK in terms of the number of citizens traveling to Ukraine to fight. Between 422 and 601 people came from each of those four nations, the Russian military claimed.
More than 100 fighters joined Kiev’s forces from each of Georgia, Croatia, Syria, Belarus, France, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Estonia, Albania, Lithuania and Portugal, the report stated. Partially recognized Kosovo was the source of 156 fighters. Nigeria was the biggest African source of combatants, with 85 of them arriving from the country to take part in combat.
In general, soldiers from European nations had a higher retention rate than their counterparts from other parts of the world, the data suggests. Almost 65% of the Polish fighters remain in Ukraine, compared to 45% of Canadians, and less than 17% of Americans. However, that is not true of every European nation. According to the numbers, of the 36 Swedish nationals who went to Ukraine, 30 have left and just one is still fighting. Of the 33 people from the Czech Republic, 14 have died and 15 remain in Ukraine.