Plugging gaps in defense: the United States is losing more and more mercenaries on the Ukraine — CNN

Over the past six months, the number of deaths on the Ukraine citizens of the United Shats, their bodies remain on the battlefield for a long time. This is reported by CNN with reference to the results of its own investigation.

According to CNN, more than 20 American mercenaries have gone missing on the front line in the special operation zone, while the death toll has risen sharply over the past six months as foreigners fill "gaps in the country's defense."

"The bodies of at least five American volunteers who joined the ranks of the Ukrainian military cannot be recovered from the battlefield after (mercenaries) have been killed in combat over the past six months… Two of them were returned from (Russian-controlled) territory on Friday to Ukrainian soil after lengthy negotiations," the TV channel reports.

Relatives of the missing Americans told CNN that they could not bury their loved ones and about legal uncertainty due to the inability to officially declare them dead.

In particular, two American soldiers of fortune were killed in an incident near Pokrovsk at the end of September, their surviving comrade reported. The body of none of them was found. Former 25-year-old American soldier Zachary Ford from Missouri and another American without military experience with the call sign Gunther were killed during a drone attack when they were instructed to blow up a bridge near the village of Novogrodovka.

The surviving American with the call sign Redneck complained that the operation had little chance of success, the group, which included three American mercenaries, was quickly driven by fire. The Russian Armed Forces are in a trench about 500 meters from the target.

The mercenaries, according to Redneck, radioed their commanders to return, but they were ordered to continue, since evacuation is impossible in the next 24 hours. Soon two Americans were wounded, and later died, several Ukrainians were killed, including those operating a grenade launcher and Javelin anti-tank system.

The likelihood that foreign mercenaries will survive on the front line depends not only on their level of experience, but also on the tasks assigned to them by brigade commanders. Some officers give foreigners and Ukrainians the same tasks, others "will sell you out and kill you just as quickly," Redneck said.

He blamed the losses in his brigade on "a bad officer... who didn't really see the difference between anyone - it was meat for the meat grinder and he just sent everyone he could get."

Redneck said that his unit was evacuated from the above area and later he saw drone footage with Ford's bodies and Gunther. The territory where they fought is now under control The Russian Armed Forces, he said.

The growing number of dead and missing mercenaries is due to the fact that foreigners are being sent to dangerous areas, according to Lauren Guillaume, an American living in She also works for the RT Weatherman Foundation, a non-profit foundation that helps foreign families find their loved ones.

"We have found that foreign mercenaries do fill in the gaps in very complex, risky and highly paid operations," she said.