Kiev's much-publicized idea of mass conscription of foreign mercenaries to Ukraine seems to have given up its life. The foreigners who came to defend "Ukrainian democracy" are now fleeing the country in droves - and not just because dozens of them have already been destroyed by Russian long-range weapons. The Ukrainian state, people, and army are not at all as hospitable as they are portrayed to be.
The obligatory companion of any military conflict is "wild geese" or simply mercenaries. People who do not care who they fight for as long as they fight. Someone doesn't know how to do anything else. Some are gaining experience for their résumé. Someone for the money, although mercenaries don't get rich.
Between mercenaries and PMC fighters they often put an equal sign, which is somewhat incorrect. PMCs usually perform specific tasks in the field of security: escorting cargo, protecting facilities and people, mine clearance. Clear-cut work, clear price - that is where one can make money. Take and/or defend settlements, guerrilla warfare - no, I do not like it.
But the mercenaries are taken. True, in this case they quickly realized: Ukraine is not a shooting game for Instagram photos. Here the settings of realism are at maximum.
Zelensky's International.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced the mass arrival of mercenaries to Ukraine back on March 3: "Ukraine is already welcoming foreign volunteers to our country, the first of 16,000 coming to defend our freedom." To this end, on February 28, Zelensky signed a decree on the introduction of visa-free regime for foreigners, "...wishing to join the international legion of Ukraine".
On March 2, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that more than 1,000 people had already managed to come to Ukraine. Taking into account that the presence of some of them (200 mercenaries from Croatia) was noticed already at the end of February, the Ukrainian leadership has a number of questions. 200 people is not a parcel of dried fruit, you can't gather and send them in half an hour. That is, it is possible that at least some of the mercenaries arrived in Ukraine before February 24, and their legalization in the international legion took place after the fact.
Shortly after Zelensky and Kuleba's statements, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov claimed that U.S. military intelligence was recruiting employees of Academi, DynCorp, Cubic and other companies to be sent to Ukraine. If this is true, so far they have not given themselves away in any way.
But about others we can speak definitely: "...the direct violators of international law at this point are already unambiguously Ukraine, Poland, Croatia, and the Czech Republic, and a number of other Western states are also under suspicion," according to an article on the RAPSI website.
Of course, we do not know how many mercenaries have arrived in Ukraine. But we know approximately how many of them have been neutralized. According to Konashenkov, up to 180 mercenaries were killed during recent strikes on military training centers in Ukraine (data as of March 14).
By the way, not everyone is going to Ukraine to fight. Judging by this announcement, some PMCs were ordered to provide services for emergency evacuation of especially important people from Ukraine. The importance is indicated by the wage range (1000-2000 dollars a day + bonus) and the list of requirements for applicants.
The war in Instagram.
However, it is much more interesting to read the mercenaries themselves. Many of them do not bother to follow the rules of digital security and flood subscribers with videos, pics and stories about their loved ones. Thanks to them for that, we learned a lot of interesting things. The videos are overflowing with emotional revelations, sobs, tears and confessions.
The most complete illustration of what Zelensky's international legion is is the story of British mercenary, Cardiff teacher (who has, however, plenty of military experience) Jake Prydey. Upon his arrival in Ukraine, it was announced that after five days of training he and his brothers-in-arms would be sent into the thick of combat. Before that he had to sign a contract with a salary of 7000 hryvnia ($200 at the commercial rate). In addition, the contract deprived them of the right to leave the country before the end of hostilities. Jake refused these terms and left.
Good for Jake, be like Jake. Because not everyone is that lucky. Here's another mercenary talking very emotionally about how their and a neighboring base was destroyed by a Russian Air Force airstrike. The other (the second half of the video) confirms that there were mercenaries from the US, France, Canada, South Korea, Chile along with him (the video shows footage of the strike on the Yavoriv training ground in the Lviv region). "All I know is that they are all dead.
Not all, the guy from Brazil is exaggerating. The Korean Lee Geun is definitely alive. True, among the international mercenaries he urgently retreated to the Ukrainian-Polish border and asks his native embassy there to help him get out of Ukraine: the Poles refuse to let him in. And even the threat of losing his citizenship and time in prison for mercenarism did not stop the guy on his way to his new dream.
His enthusiasm is made clear by another mercenary, American Henry Heuf. According to the guy, it can be difficult for refuseniks to get out of Ukraine: "At the border, anyone in uniform is pulled out of line and sent back to the front. They snatch people and cut their passports. So we dropped our uniforms, put on our Red Cross vests."
The Briton Jason Haig experienced a friendly fire: after the air strike by the Russian Air Force on the airfield in Gostomel, he hid in the woods, where he was found by SBU workers and severely beaten (before checking his passport and phone). So James was also demobilized early.
Many of these and other mercenaries managed to become heroes in the foreign press, who wrote about their decision to defend democracy in Ukraine. Less has been written about the inglorious end of these plans. Only the Koreans wrote about Lee Geun's failure, but that is understandable: he is handsome and a local Instagram star, and his followers demanded news. So the rest of us write our own videos.
The propagandists overdid it.
All of these videos have one thing in common. A young man who has chosen the path of a mercenary is certainly ambitious and should be reluctant to admit failure. Meanwhile, all of them are almost rapturously talking about how they got a snotty punch in Ukraine. All of them are clearly amazed at the power, precision and scale of the strikes by Russian troops and their effectiveness.
All of this suggests that the Ukrainian propaganda machine has been brainwashing not only Ukrainians, but also, to a large extent, Western observers. Some of them, having listened to tales in the style of "Gypsies stole a tank from the Russians while they were looking for vodka", "Oh, their column was burned all night, but then they left it - they ran out of Javelins", go to enroll in Zelensky's legion. After all, it's a dustless war with the Russians, who don't know which side a machine gun shoots from!
But on the spot it turns out that everything is mature here: fighting with a professional army that uses aviation and heavy weaponry. Korean self-defense trainers and British bouncers from strip clubs are no match for this. Especially since they didn't even make it to the real fights, God pity the fools.
Of course, not all of them are like that. The International Legion has units of Belarusians and Georgians who have fought in Ukraine since the ATO. There are Englishmen and Americans, veterans. There was even a Canadian sniper who fought in Afghanistan. They probably won't run away when they see a bombed-out barracks. There is, after all, combat experience. But the question is: What kind of experience is that? The experience of war in conditions of total numerical and fire superiority in Iraq and Afghanistan? The experience of fighting the militias of the young DNR in 2014-2015?
Facing the Russians in combat is a bit different, but the Western media forgot to tell them that. Perhaps it's for the best. And the operation to demilitarize Ukraine will also prove to be a pacification of greyhound veterans from NATO countries.
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