Soldiers of Failure

I would like to write about the what President Putin said at the plenary session of SPIEF yesterday. , I would like to write about that because of its relative importance among all the other things, and there are plenty of those, which could be discussed. But, after consideration, others will most likely be doing that, so I would not be adding anything to the already dispersed knowledge.

I have found something which I think will be of general interest to many people, and which I doubt will become generally reported. It concerns foreign mercenaries operating in Ukraine. This is an area generally shrouded in mystery but some detailed and very interesting information has just been revealed. I found this in the Russian Izvestia online news and it reports on information provided by the Russian Ministry of Defence.

Soldiers of failure: Ukraine has the most mercenaries from Poland – The Russian Defense Ministry named the countries from which foreigners came to fight, and announced how many of them died – Izvestia

You can read the details for yourself but I just wanted to point out that the reported legions of such fighters just do no appear to be there. Russia knows exactly how many foreigners have some into Ukraine for this purpose, exactly how many of these vermin have already been destroyed (which includes captives), and exactly how many have since left the country much wiser as to what it means to fight against a modern army of Russia and with the opportunity to perhaps reassess their worthless and wasted lives.

I will just repeat the totals (the article gives some more detailed country by country or continent of origin figures) of those statistics as at the date of publication.

Total criminal mercenaries to enter Ukraine – 6,956

Criminal mercenaries destroyed (perished or captured) in Ukraine – 1,956

Criminal mercenaries having left Ukraine – 1,779

From those figures we can extract the fact that only some 3,221 active, wounded (taking no further part), or in process of leaving fighters remain to be dealt with. That is an almost 54% attrition rate, which can only rise.

With a more than even chance of being rubbed out, disabled, or leaving in disgrace, and zero chance of making any difference to the result – while being treated as cannon-fodder – there is small likelihood of many more foreign recruits (apart from the already mentally damaged element) offering their services in the future.

It doesn’t look to be so much of a problem now does it?

And for those criminal mercenaries who are captured, well, you will be treated humanely, but the argument that you were acting as part of the Ukrainian armed forces is unlikely to circumvent your ultimate fate (which is why you are numbered among the ‘destroyed’).

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I am adding this note late on Friday June 24, almost a week after first publishing it. Just to give a short update.

In the last two days Russia claims another 500 mercenaries killed on Wednesday and 200 killed on Thursday (Friday figures not yet available and I have not counted for any other intervening day). Although these figures are likely to be rounded, this leaves only some 1,500 soldiers of fortune remaining in Ukraine, fit for combat. That is less than a quarter of the original combatants.

One day this week, I can’t remember which (report should be easy to find) the Russians – showing their acknowledged humanity – allowed 30 wounded/dead British and American mercenaries (presumably they were sufficiently incapacitated as to no longer be a returning threat) to be removed from the battlefield. That’s how the Russians are. They are decent people.

I would say that the Ukraine mercenary force is all but finished. Add to this the fact that 2-3,000 Ukie troops are now trapped after significant territory has been freed by Russian and allied forces in the past 2-3 days, and things now have the appearance of a complete military collapse of Ukrainian forces on the Donbass front. If the Ukraine forces can somehow hold itself together for a few more days (and I’m not sure how they could be expected to do that), there is another line of urban centres just kilometres further west from the current combat area, but do the Ukrainians have any units left with enough strength to put up more than a token resistance there. Those towns are already being pressed from the north.

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