The Russian Ministry of Defense announced that up to 400 foreign mercenaries have been trapped in the city of Mariupol.
“In total, according to the surrendered Ukrainian soldiers, up to 400 foreign mercenaries are now trapped in the territory of the Azovstal enterprise as part of the Ukrainian group,” said ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov, in a press briefing today, Sunday, April 17.
Most of them are citizens of European countries as well as Canada, he explained, “Earlier, we were already informed that radio talks between militants in Mariupol are taking place in six foreign languages. If the resistance continues, they will all be destroyed.”
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Konashenkov added that Kyiv had attracted about 7,000 mercenaries from different countries, stressing that there were only less than 5,000 of them left. “In total, with the start of the special military operation, the Kyiv nationalist regime attracted 6,824 foreign mercenaries from 63 countries to Ukraine, the largest group came from Poland 1717 About 1,500 mercenaries arrived from the United States of America and Canada as well as Romania from Great Britain and Georgia, each with up to 300 people, and 193 people arrived from areas under Turkish control in the Syrian Arab Republic.
According to him, the vast majority of mercenaries are now distributed as part of Ukrainian groups in the cities of Kyiv, Kharkov, Odessa, Nikolaev, and Mariupol. The number of mercenaries is steadily increasing and today stands at 4877 people.
On the ground, the Russian military operation in Ukraine continues, since its beginning on February 24.
The Russian-Ukrainian conflict gained a new turning point, on February 21, after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the recognition of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent republics of Ukraine, in an escalatory step that drew great anger from Kyiv and its Western allies.
In the wake of this, the Russian forces began, at dawn on Thursday, February 24, to launch a military operation in eastern Ukraine, which opened the door to the possibility of the outbreak of a “third world war”, which would be the first in the twenty-first century.
The European Union said the world has been living in a “blacker atmosphere” since World War Two, while the European Union and the United States imposed a package of sanctions against Russia, which European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen described as “the toughest ever.”
However, the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization “NATO” have so far insisted not to engage in any military operation in Ukraine, and the EU countries also refuse to impose a no-fly zone in Ukraine, contrary to the desire of Kyiv, which called on European countries to take that step, Which the US administration said would cause a “third world war”.
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, earlier, that the outbreak of a third world war would be “nuclear and destructive,” as he described it.
On the scene of the events, the Russian Defense Ministry said, at the beginning of the military operation, that the Ukrainian air defense system and its bases had been destroyed and the infrastructure of the Air Force was out of service.
Later, the Russian Defense announced, on Saturday, February 26, that it had issued orders to the Russian forces to launch military operations on all axes in Ukraine, following Kyiv’s refusal to enter into negotiations with Moscow, while Ukraine attributed that refusal to Russia putting conditions on the table before negotiating. rejected for Ukraine.
However, the two sides sat for negotiations for the first time, on Monday, February 28, in Gomel, on the Belarusian border, and a second round of talks was held on Thursday, March 3, while the two sides held a third round of talks in Belarus on Monday, March 7. The three rounds of negotiations ended without a noticeable change on the ground.
The head of the Russian delegation said that his country’s expectations from the third round of negotiations “did not materialize”, but indicated that meetings with Ukraine would continue, while the Ukrainian delegation spoke of a slight progress in negotiations with the Russians on “safe corridors.”
Prior to that, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky signed, on February 28, a decree on his country’s application to join the European Union, in a move that did not find Russian opposition, as the issue of Kyiv’s accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization “NATO”.
Russian Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the European Union is not a military-political bloc, noting that the issue of Kyiv’s accession to the union does not fall within the framework of strategic security issues, but falls within a different framework.
At the international level, the United Nations General Assembly voted, on Wednesday, 2 March, to condemn the Russian war on Ukraine, with 141 countries approving the draft resolution, while only 5 countries rejected the issue of condemning Russia, while 35 countries around the world abstained.
The United Nations announced that more than 3 million people have fled Ukraine since the war began there, while the United Nations revealed, on Saturday, March 19, that nearly 850 civilians have been killed in the war so far.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian authorities have imposed martial law throughout the country since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukrainian territory.
On Sunday, March 20, the Ukrainian President announced the extension of the imposition of martial law in the country for a period of 30 days, starting from Wednesday, March 23.
Before starting a military operation against Ukraine, Russia had always rejected the West’s accusations of preparing for an “invasion” of Ukraine, and said that it was not a party to the internal Ukrainian conflict.
However, this was not convincing for Western circles, which were basing their accusations of Moscow of preparing for the invasion of Ukraine, on Russia’s deployment of about 100,000 Russian soldiers a few weeks ago on its borders with Ukraine, a country close to the West, saying that “this invasion could take place in any time”.
But Russia justified this at the time that it only wanted to ensure its security, at a time when Washington sent military reinforcements to Eastern Europe and Ukraine as well.
For its part, Moscow at the time accused the West of using these accusations as a pretext to increase the military presence of NATO near its borders, at a time when Russia was and still insists on rejecting the issue of NATO expansion, or Ukraine joining the alliance, while Kyiv is eager to join the NATO banner. Atlantic.