Moscow, February 26 More than 10,000 foreign volunteers from 75 countries serve in the Ukrainian ground forces, and approximately 600 new individuals enlist each month to join them, Russia's state-run TASS said on Thursday, quoting an official publication from Kyiv.
A similar claim was made by a US government-funded Prague-based Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Donbas Realii (Donbas Reality).
“Currently, more than 10,000 foreign volunteers from 75 countries serve in the Ukrainian Ground Forces. Approximately 600 new volunteers enlist and join the ranks of the Ukrainian armed forces each month,” TASS claimed after reviewing publications from one of the Ukrainian armed forces' Foreign Recruitment Centres (FRC).
TASS also stated that it learned which units are most in need of foreign mercenaries and cited the names of several brigades.
In September 2025, Russian security agencies reported that approximately 20,000 foreign mercenaries were fighting on the side of the Ukrainian armed forces, it said.
As the Russian Defence Ministry previously reported, mercenaries from various countries have been fighting for the Ukrainian armed forces. They are being used by the Kiev regime as "cannon fodder," and no one in the Ukrainian military command spares their lives, TASS said.
Donbas Realii quoted Kostiantyn Milevskyi, Deputy Head of the Department for Coordination of Military Service for Foreigners in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as saying that volunteers from 75 countries have joined the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“It's a little colder now. People from warmer climates aren't leaving as much. We can subtract up to 50 people from those 600. As it gets warmer, there will be a little more. But we're talking about the average,” Milevskyi was quoted as saying by the Donbas Realii, the radio banned in Russia.
In total, the number of foreign volunteers who have served or continue to serve in the units of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine at one time or another is more than 10,000.
“We're not trying to recruit more people into the Ukrainian Armed Forces than we can support. What does that mean? It's about training, ensuring combat effectiveness, and providing them with weapons and uniforms. Of course, we could increase the number to 1,000, or 1,500, or even 10,000, but if there's no one to care for them, there won't be any results,” Milevskyi explained to the Donbas Realii.
In February 2022, after the start of a full-scale Russian invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the formation of a separate territorial defence unit – the International Legion – for foreigners wishing to "join the defence of security in Europe and the world."
Moscow too had invited thousands of North Korean troops to repel Ukrainian incursions and occupation (from August 2024 - March 2025) of parts of its western Kursk region, and now North Korean sappers are involved in mine-clearing operations in these parts of the region.