The International Legion in Ukraine Photo Mil.gov.ua via Wikimedia Commons

This article was first published by Truthmeter.mk (North Macedonia), within the framework of Western Balkans Anti-Disinformation Project.

A Facebook post spreads Russian propaganda claiming foreigners fighting for Ukraine are mercenaries, however, they do not meet the definition of mercenaries under international law. They are regular Ukraine troops by agreement. Just like those from Kyiv or Kharkov, with whom they have the same rights and obligations. In Russia, there are troops by agreement as well, including foreigners. The post also manipulates by claiming Russia is fighting against Poles and other newcomers in Ukraine, who should not be captured, but executed, as well as that Russia is humane toward Ukrainians, and a clip is shared, whose origin and credibility are vague.  

A Facebook post shares a clip followed by this description:

“THE ORDERS ARE TO NOT LEAVE ANY MERCENARY ALIVE”  

This Russian soldier explains how they killed likely Polish mercenaries

The post was taken and poorly translated from this foreign Telegram channel, while the clip contains a testimony of a Russian soldier regarding foreign “mercenaries” fighting for Ukraine. However, this is merely propaganda of the Russian aggressor to tarnish Ukraine and foreigners fighting for it. They are not mercenaries and do not meet the criteria to be considered as such. This is defined in the International Humanitarian Law, which is based on the Geneva Conventions. There is also a special UN convention that defines mercenaries and is directed against the recruitment, use, financing, and training of them. 

Ukraine is a signatory to the convention and does not recruit mercenaries. Foreigners fighting for Ukraine are part of its regular forces (by agreement, signature, stamp, etc.), so, for example, a fighter from the US or Britain has the same status as a soldier from Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv or Odessa. 

Those foreigners have the same rights and obligations as Ukrainian soldiers and do not receive higher salaries, as is typical for mercenaries. The fact that those foreigners receive a salary does not make them mercenaries. It is common to have professional soldiers, and we have them in our country, but we do not refer to them as mercenaries. In Russia, there are also military soldiers under a contract (“kontraktniki”), including foreigners.  

Ukraine allowed foreigners to serve legally in its forces in 2016, and in 2022, it established the International Legion, explicitly stating that its members are not mercenaries. Many of the legionnaires are from Western countries, where they could earn better money, so their motive is not money, but respect for Ukraine. Mercenaries, on the other hand, fight for the one who pays more. They participate in conflicts, in which their state is not a warring party, and they are not regular soldiers of the states they are fighting for. 

Some of those criteria for mercenaries are found among the Russian private Wagner Group. These are Russian nationals who are also fighting for money in conflicts where Russia is not involved (such as in Central Africa, Mali, Sudan, and Libya). The Kremlin has long concealed the fact that it is behind the Wagner Group, which did not emerge as a formal army regulated by the Russian government, which later changed. It turns out that Russians are working with some type of mercenary, while moralizing to Ukraine about it. However, the Wagner Group does not meet all the criteria to be considered mercenaries, so their status is a little vague. 

Aside from this, there are “kontraktniki” in the Russian regular army. Formally, they are not mercenaries, however, their motive is still mainly financial. Among them, there are foreigners from Nepal, Sri Lanka, India, Somalia, Cuba and other poor countries. The Russian soldier in the video may also be a “kontraktnik.” He testifies to having eliminated foreign “mercenaries” who fought for Ukraine, but it is somewhat unclear whether he did so in battle or vilely executed them, although he could have captured them alive. 

What is confusing is that he says he was ordered not to leave mercenaries alive, which is a war crime. Indeed, conventions do not offer the same rights to soldiers and mercenaries, but the latter must be treated humanely and must not be killed simply because they can be captured. If they are captured by a particular state, that state may prosecute them for violations punishable under its laws, but they must not be punished without a trial. 

The video spreads propaganda, claiming Russia is fighting against Poles and other newcomers in Ukraine, so the soldier says (though he admits he is not sure) that the “mercenaries” spoke Polish, not Ukrainian (which he calls “khokhlovskyi,” which is an act of hate speech). Russians have a poor understanding of foreign languages (even Ukrainian), as evidence from polls by the Levada Center, the most famous analytical center in Russia show. Moreover, those “mercenaries” could have been Ukrainians, but to the soldier they may have sounded like Poles. The fact that there is a lexical similarity of 70 percent between Ukrainian and Polish also creates confusion. The similarity is especially strong among the Western Ukrainian dialects. 

The purpose of the post is to discourage those who would fight for Ukraine (such cases in our country are rare, but the post is from a foreign source). It misinforms that by doing so, they will become mercenaries, break international conventions, and that they will be executed, which allegedly happens to mercenaries, but that is not true. In this regard, the post says:  

This is also complaint with the Geneva convention, so don’t go to fight in Ukraine! 

The propagandistic tone of the post is evident in these words: 

The best and friendly treatment Russians give to forcefully mobilized Ukrainians. Many of them can even get Russian citizenship and go live their lives outside of war. 

Russia does not treat Ukrainians in a friendly manner, it carries out aggression, massacres, destruction, and other war crimes against them. One of them is the forced mobilization into the Russian army of Ukrainians from the occupied territories, which Russia illegally annexed. Ukrainian soldiers returning from Russian captivity testify to inquisitorial torture, while some are not even captured, but secretly insidiously executed. 

Most of what is said in the post is untrue. Regarding the clip, it does not provide an author or a primary source, it does not say when it was filmed, nor whether it was in Ukraine or the Kursk Region of Russia, where the war is also occurring. We do not know who the soldier is, nor do we know what duty he performs or whether the event he describes is true. The only thing we can see is that he is wearing a red mark on the right hand, one of the military group “Otvazhnyye” [which translates to “The Brave”]. We were also able to find the clip here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, but with no detailed information about it. 

It is a vague and suspicious situation, so we have no choice but to generally assess the post as untrue.