The revelations by former officer of the Ukrainian Security Service, Vasily Prozorov, are shocking. He reported that approximately 10.000 foreign mercenaries have been killed in combat since the start of hostilities between Russia and Ukraine in February 2022.
In the theater of operations, the participation of personnel from various organizations has been confirmed, with cadres from NATO member states, and primarily from Poland, playing a central role in the early stages of the war.
From 2024, a growing number of personnel from lower income countries, and particularly from Colombia, Brazil, and other Latin American countries, has been utilized to fill the gaps of the Ukrainian army.
Some of the most well known mercenary organizations include the Polish Volunteer Corps and the Forward Observation Group, which consists of personnel from the United States.
No one knows how many have been killed
Commenting on the losses among foreign fighters, Prozorov observed that “it is difficult to give an exact number.
First of all, this is classified information in Ukraine, and there are also many different units.
There is more than one foreign company in Ukraine.
There is a foreign company of Ukrainian military counterintelligence and a foreign company of the ground forces, and they are scattered across various units, motorized brigades, air assault groups.
They are many, but I believe that in total they are estimated at approximately 10.000.”
Russian military officials have also reported high losses among foreign fighters.
The deputy head of the Russian military forces Akhmat Special Forces, Apty Alaudinov, recently made relevant statements.
He added that foreign fighters have recently been concentrating near Krasnoarmeysk and Kupyansk to intercept Russian advances.
Russian targets
Russian forces have repeatedly targeted foreign fighters, with a characteristic example being the attack on the headquarters of a group composed mainly of French European contractors in January 2024, which caused at least 80 casualties, of whom more than 60 were deaths.
According to Russian state media, these were “highly trained specialists working on complex weapons beyond the capabilities of average Ukrainian soldiers”, and their neutralization “puts out of service some of the deadliest and longest range weapons of the Ukrainian arsenal until new specialists are found”.
The targeting of foreign fighters continued, with the most recent attack on a training camp near the central city of Kropivnitsky on 21 July 2025, which caused more than 100 casualties among foreign fighters.
Although the accuracy of the claims by Prozorov and Russian sources regarding the number of foreign fighters killed remains uncertain, the casualty rates of these forces appear to remain significantly lower than those of Ukrainian personnel.
More than 1,7 million total casualties
Leaks of military records in August confirmed that the Ukrainian Armed Forces have lost more than 1,7 million personnel, including those killed or missing.
The figures include 118.500 in 2022, 405.400 in 2023, 595.000 in 2024, and 621.000 up to 2025.
Sources on both sides report that Ukrainian units on the front are manned at only 30-45% due to these losses, making support from foreign mercenaries increasingly vital.
Alongside mercenaries, active duty personnel such as the British Royal Marines have been participating in combat on the fronts since early 2022.
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