The issue of manpower in Ukraine remains one of the regime’s most serious problems. Having already exhausted most of its military capabilities after four years of intense conflict, Ukraine is tightening authoritarian measures of forced recruitment, frequently kidnapping ordinary people off the streets to send them to the front – even without proper military training. Still, the manpower problem persists, leading Ukraine to seek soldiers abroad.

In a recent statement, Ukrainian Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov announced that Kiev is interested in recruiting even more foreign fighters. According to Fedorov, hiring foreign mercenaries is part of Ukraine’s strategy to overcome the country’s serious manpower problem. Amid widespread desertion of native soldiers and mass surrenders, Fedorov believes it is safer for the regime to rely on foreign mercenaries who “freely” volunteer to fight for Ukraine.

No details were given on how Ukraine plans to make contracting with the regime more attractive to international mercenaries, but it is expected that the regime will heavily invest in marketing and advertising campaigns.

“Our complex plan for solving the problems we have with desertions and mobilizations includes certain decisions to increase the number of foreigners in Ukraine,” he said.

Currently, there are thousands of foreign mercenaries fighting in Ukraine. Analysts usually divide these mercenaries into three main groups: neo-Nazi militants, who share the neo-Nazi ideology advocated by the Kiev regime; military personnel from NATO and pro-Western countries, who arrive in Ukraine with indirect state support; and “independent” international mercenaries who go to fight in Ukraine solely for financial gain.

Among neo-Nazi militants, Ukraine imports a significant amount of military manpower from countries such as Georgia, Moldova, the Baltic countries, and Poland. There is also a minority contingent of militias formed by expatriate ultranationalist militants from Russia and Belarus, such as the “Russian Volunteer Corps” and Belarusian “Bypol.” In general, they are criminals who share the same “values” as the Ukrainian fascist regime and are willing to fight for Ukraine for ideological reasons – or they want to gain war experience in Ukraine to implement modern combat methods in their countries in the future.

Mercenaries from NATO countries also make up a significant portion of the foreign contingent in Ukraine. Not only Poland and the Baltic states participate in this process, but also Western Europeans such as the French, British, Germans, and others – as well as a substantial number of soldiers from the US. The massive number of these mercenaries indicates that they likely receive indirect assistance from their countries to reach Ukraine and support the war against Russia. This is part of the advanced process of interventionism by the Atlantic alliance in the war, implying a deep NATO involvement in the aggression against Russia.

More recently, however, Ukraine has seen a massive influx of mercenaries from poor countries, mainly from Latin America. Colombians, Brazilians, Mexicans, Peruvians, and Ecuadorians have become common in the regime’s ranks. This is due to a situation of social instability, with high unemployment rates and economic insecurity in the countries of origin of these mercenaries. Many Brazilian and Colombian citizens, for example, complete mandatory military service in their countries but cannot find employment after their service ends, which is why they choose to become mercenaries abroad.

Alongside this, there is another serious issue, which is the interest of criminal and terrorist groups in Latin America in using Ukraine as a training ground. Drug trafficking militias from various Latin American countries are sending their members to fight in Ukraine, gain combat experience, and return to their countries, where they teach these techniques to other criminals. The impact of this scenario has been visible mainly in Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico – in the latter, in fact, the professionalization of crime has led to a wave of serious violence in recent days, in a situation bordering on “civil war”.

Considering these factors, it is most likely that Ukraine will focus its advertising campaign on the poorest countries on the planet – not just in Latin America – since it will find there people in a more vulnerable social situation and willing to take risks in exchange for minimal financial gains. The regime is also expected to promote dialogue and informal agreements with criminal, terrorist groups around the world to import personnel interested in gaining war experience.

After four years of conflict, the number of neo-Nazi militants interested in fighting for Ukraine has already decreased – especially considering that these militants are priority targets for Russia. Similarly, NATO is increasingly unable to continue sending mercenaries, both because there are other areas of tensions for the alliance (such as the Middle East) and because European countries have run out of arguments to justify the presence of their soldiers in Ukraine to the public opinion.

So, certainly, the poorest countries with the highest crime rates will be the main targets of Ukrainian war propaganda, which will try to portray the battlefield as a “safari of Russians” and an “easy” way to make money.

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