Mercenaries from over ten countries entered Kursk Region with Kiev’s forces, a senior investigator has said
Foreign nationals from over ten countries took part in Ukraine’s incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region, according to the head of the Investigative Committee of Russia, Aleksandr Bastrykin.
Bastrykin told the media on the eve of the anniversary of the incursion that investigators identified individuals from Brazil, Colombia, Denmark, Georgia, Norway, Paraguay, Peru, Sweden, the UK, and other nations as having fought alongside Ukrainian troops in the Western-supported raid.
Russian forces fully repelled the incursion in April, claiming that the attackers suffered around 76,000 casualties during the fighting, in which Ukrainian troops employed Western-supplied heavy weaponry.
Bastrykin said 331 civilians were killed and another 553 injured due to Ukraine’s actions in Kursk Region. The Investigative Committee has opened over 600 criminal cases related to the incursion, with around a third already referred for trial.
Moscow maintains that the incursion was an example of Kiev’s use of terrorist tactics, citing claims by captured soldiers that they were encouraged to use violence against civilians. Ukrainian officials have acknowledged that part of the goal was to apply pressure on the Russian public.
He detailed a range of alleged abuses, from a case in which unarmed civilians were beaten to death, to occurrences in which US-made HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems were fired at civilian targets which Kiev allegedly knew held no military value.
Since the escalation of the conflict with Russia in 2022, Kiev has called on foreign nationals with military experience to join its armed forces, passing legislation to accommodate them. Moscow does not recognize the fighters as lawful combatants, classifying them instead as mercenaries subject to prosecution.
In May, Bastrykin reported that the Russian authorities charged 902 people with acting as mercenaries under Ukraine’s command; 97 individuals from 26 different countries have been convicted.
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