The number of foreign mercenaries fighting on the side of Ukraine is decreasing, retired Lieutenant-Colonel of the Donbass People's Militia Andrey Marochko told Sputnik.
"In the course of analyzing incoming data from agency sources, monitoring of radio airwaves, as well as information directly from the line of contact, we can conclude that in recent times there has been a steady tendency to reduce the number of foreign mercenaries in the combat zone," he said, citing his own sources.
According to the expert, there is information that foreign private military companies are removing their people from Ukraine.
The Russian Army in Ukraine is currently facing about 2,000 foreign mercenaries, most of them concentrated in the Zaporozhye region, according to an analytical note compiled by the Defense Ministry and obtained by a Russian newspaper. Since the beginning of the special military operation, fighters from 88 countries have arrived in Ukraine. Most of them are from Poland and the United States. A large number of private military companies are involved in their training programs. Experts note that the time of a mass influx of mercenaries is over and explain that it is due to high losses.
The Russian Defense Ministry said that Kiev has intensified the recruitment of mercenaries amid the disruption of mobilization plans and in order to conceal heavy losses among the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
They are recruited in the United States and Canada, including with the help of the CIA, as well as in Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East, such as in US-controlled areas of Syria.
More than 4,800 mercenaries have been killed during the special military operation, and the same number has fled from Ukraine, according to the ministry.