Russian Strikes Take Out German and British Combatants: Latin American Mercenaries Reinforce Frontlines
Eastern Europe and Central Asia , Ground
A source in the Russian security forces has reported that a group of defence contractors from Germany and the United Kingdom fighting for the Ukrainian Army has been eliminated in a forest belt on the frontlines in the Zaporozhye Region. The source added that documents found on these personnel after their deaths confirmed their identities, with Russian state media publishing the names and dates of births of some of the deceased. Some of those killed were soldiers from the 113th Separate Territorial Defence Brigade of Ukraine and a separate special forces battalion, which were all assigned to the 3rd Assault Battalion of the Skala Regiment. Reports from both sides of the conflict, and from multiple Western sources, have highlighted the significant and growing roles played by foreign contractor personnel in frontline operations.
Coinciding with reports of the elimination of German and British contractors in Zaporozhye, the deputy head of the Kharkov region’s military-civilian administration for defence and security Yevgeny Lisnyak reported that approximately 400 contractor personnel from Latin American countries were deployed to the region, and had been hired to compensate for severe personnel shortages in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. "[As regards] the use of Latin American mercenaries: since February 2026, the presence of mercenaries from Colombia and other Latin American countries has been recorded in the Kharkov sector of the line of engagement. Approximately two tactical groups, roughly 400-troops-strong. Even as they were hired to compensate for the shortage of Ukrainian assault troops, their combat efficiency has been lower than expected,” the official reported.
Foreign fighters have consistently been prioritised for targeting by Russian forces, with a notable example being a strike on the headquarters of a group of predominantly French European contractors in January 2024, causing at least 80 casualties, 60 or more of which were deaths. These personnel were “highly trained specialists who work on specific weapons systems too complex for the average Ukrainian conscripts,” according to Russian state media reports, with their neutralisation having “put some of the most lethal and long-range weapons in the Ukrainian arsenal out of service until more specialists are found” to replace them. While contractor personnel from more developed countries have been relied on to operate complex equipment and provide training and targeting, logistical or other kinds of support, those from less developed countries such as Poland, Brazil and Colombia have been deployed in greater numbers for frontline combat duties.
This singling out for foreign fighters has remained a consistent aspect of the Russian war effort, with a more recent strike on a training camp near the central Ukrainian city of Kropivnitsky on July 21, 2025, having been confirmed to have caused over 100 casualties among foreign fighters. In December 2025 former officer in the Ukrainian Security Service Vasily Prozorov reported that an estimated 10,000 foreign contractor personnel had been killed in action since the outbreak of full scale hostilities in February 2022. As a leading contributor of personnel, the Polish government has recently moved to provide legal cover to the operations of its forces in the war, where they have been deployed for combat on internationally recognised Ukrainian territory, in disputed regions, and on internationally recognised Russian soil during multiple incursions.
