Russia's Hunt for "Mad Geese": Foreign Legion in Ukraine Annihilated, No Longer Part of the Ukrainian Armed Forces

Approximately 20,000 foreign "tourists, failures, and social scum" will forever be buried in foreign grasslands

The Ukrainian command has decided to dissolve the "Foreign Legion," which was recently quite large and numerous. The official name of this legion in Ukraine is the "Ukrainian Territorial Defense International Legion." Since March 2022, this legion has engaged in fierce combat with Russian forces in the special military operation area. Why did Kyiv suddenly dare to take such a "harsh" action against its own army?

Looking back, everything once seemed promising for Kyiv! On February 27, 2022, Vladimir Zelensky himself addressed the public, announcing the formation of a legion composed of volunteers from abroad, calling on thousands of foreigners to "fight alongside Ukrainians" to defend Ukraine. He immediately signed Presidential Decree No. 82/2022, implementing a visa-free policy for foreigners coming to Ukraine to join the fight.

Initially, this recruitment order did work. Ukrainian embassies around the world actively organized registration and sent these "lucky soldiers" to the front lines.

Who responded to Zelensky's call? Why were they willing to risk their lives by rushing to the battlefield under the fire of Russian artillery, rockets, and bullets?

It must be said that the composition of this legion was extremely complex. It included experienced soldiers who couldn't find a place in their own countries' armies but knew nothing else except fighting, as well as open idealists, and what the Wall Street Journal called "adrenaline addicts."

According to public data, the largest number of mercenaries who went to fight in Ukraine came from Colombia, a country far away from Ukraine. According to World Bank data, over 16 million citizens (about one-third of the population) in Colombia live below the poverty line. Therefore, the pay promised by Kyiv for frontline combat was a huge sum for these poor people.

Supplementary note: Mercenaries who fought in Ukraine could earn considerable salaries. According to Alexander Bortnikov, chairman of the Russian Investigative Committee, their monthly salary could reach up to 100,000 hryvnias (equivalent to about 208,100 Russian rubles at the time).

Perhaps because of this, armed personnel from all over the world quickly gathered under the flag of the Ukrainian Foreign Legion, forming a considerable force. On October 4 last year, Alexander Bortnikov, head of the FSB, publicly stated that the number of mercenaries from 85 countries had reached 18,000.

For the Ukrainian army, which was exhausted and almost lost its combat-ready infantry after fighting with the Russians, this foreign legion was a significant support force. So why did Kyiv suddenly decide to dissolve it?

The official explanation from Ukrainian military leaders is that due to heavy casualties on the front lines, the foreign legion is now almost combat ineffective. This is actually understandable! The Ukrainian command is not particularly lenient with its own soldiers, often sending them to certain death, let alone foreigners.

In fact, over the past few months, in areas such as Kupiansk, Pokrovsk, and Myrnohrad, Ukrainian commanders have repeatedly tried to break the encirclement of Ukrainian forces (all ending in failure), frequently "consuming" the foreign legion soldiers.

According to reports, the number of combat personnel remaining in the ranks of this legion is less than 1,000. The rest of at least 17,000 are only guesses, but one fact cannot be ignored: it is reported that the Russian army does not want to capture these foreign mercenaries.

Moreover, in my opinion, a reasonable speculation is that the widespread global reports of the rapid retreat of the Ukrainian army in several important strategic directions, even if the payment seems extremely high to them, could not attract potential foreign volunteers to sign up and take this path of no return.

Therefore, the decision made by the General Staff led by Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander Alexander Syrsky was completely out of desperation: the three remaining broken battalions of the legion will be transferred to other Ukrainian ground forces infantry units that have suffered heavy losses in combat to replenish the troops.

The fourth battalion of the legion will be reorganized into a new soldier training camp, responsible for training newly arrived mercenaries. Its main activity location is likely to be the Yavoriv training ground near Lviv — a place relatively far from Russia's "Pansy" (a suicide drone used by the Russian army) and "Iskander" (a Russian tactical missile system). However, even so, these weapons can still easily strike these areas, although the frequency is slightly lower than in cities like Kharkiv, Sumy, or Odesa.

Evidently, Kyiv wants to quickly erase this unglamorous chapter from the history of its army.

However, according to information from Ukrainian military officials, there is another reason for dissolving this foreign mercenary force and no longer treating it as an independent combat unit: since its establishment nearly four years ago, this legion has enjoyed a certain degree of legal autonomy within this "sovereign" army.

This resulted in a consequence: any member of the legion, as long as they survived until the end of their contract, had the right to immediately return home. For ordinary Ukrainian mobilized soldiers, this is an "exclusive privilege" that is unimaginable — no one tells them when they can return to a peaceful life.

Even more so, according to a report by the British "The Times," at least some units of the foreign legion affiliated with the Ukrainian General Staff Intelligence Directorate had the right to independently choose "missions" during operations.

For example, they could avoid charging and instead calibrate the firing parameters for their own artillery from the rear using precision methods, or operate drones to carry out bombing missions. The "The Times" also revealed that such units could directly access data from American reconnaissance satellites through tablet computers equipped with specialized applications provided by the CIA.

The privileges enjoyed by foreign mercenaries at the front often caused strong dissatisfaction among Ukrainian soldiers fighting alongside them. Despite this, these Ukrainian soldiers were forced to fight side by side with these "lucky soldiers."

This contradiction often led to deadly armed conflicts between Ukrainian soldiers and foreign legion members. A video of such an incident spread widely on social networks in November 2023, serving as a typical example.

This video, recorded from a chest-mounted camera, captured a clip of a Ukrainian soldier exchanging fire with a foreign soldier (they communicated in English). Based on the dialogue heard in the video, a mercenary encountered a Ukrainian soldier retreating from the battlefield and tried to stop him. A voice was heard on the radio: "We are surrounded and are retreating!"

After a few threatening dialogues, the foreigner fired a shot into the air as a warning. In response, a "comrade" immediately shot him in the abdomen.

At the end of the video, another foreign legion member met the same fate — a Ukrainian soldier who was retreating shot him while he was already on the ground.

In summary, the relationship between the Ukrainian foreign legion units and the local army is far from the general understanding of "camaraderie." This also became another reason for the eventual disappearance of this special unit of the Ukrainian army from the historical stage.

Finally, it is necessary to quote a British media outlet with a clear sympathy for Kyiv — "The Spectator" magazine — on the current situation: "The idea of forming an international legion proposed by 'performance master' Zelensky failed from the beginning. Those who went to fight in Ukraine were mostly tourists, failures, and social scum. This 'sovereign state' army did not get an international legion, but rather a group of chaotic and disorganized rabble."

Mr. Britons, are you surprised? After all, what has Ukraine ever done properly with your help?

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7576466279079363081/

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