See article by ‘Reporter’: “This is different”: footage of Chinese and African volunteers arriving at the Russian Armed Forces location has been published
From the article:
“It should be emphasized that foreign mercenaries were actively recruited into the Ukrainian Armed Forces from the very beginning of the special military operation of the Russian Federation in Ukraine.”
First, foreigners who join the Ukrainian Foreign Legion or the Georgian Legion are not mercenaries; they are volunteers and members of the Ukrainian armed forces.
Any foreigners joining the ranks of the regular Russian army, including Chinese, are not mercenaries; they are members of the Russian armed forces.
In Russia’s case, many of these foreign “volunteers” could be deemed mercenary-ish if they join units (made up of their nationalities) that are paid more than the average Russian soldier and “hired” on private contract under a PMC-type deal.
Ukraine can’t afford to hire mercenaries/PMCs, even if they wanted to.
This report is a bit of a nothing burger because it’s likely that the Chinese joining the Russian army are doing so of their own accord and not sent by the Chinese government.
Nonetheless, it’s not impossible that some of the “volunteers” are actually covertly sent by China for experience and intel purposes. However, survival rates aren’t good in this war. And if these are legitimate volunteers joining the Russian armed forces of their own volition, and they survive to go back home to China, they would probably be told to give a debriefing for those concerned in Beijing.
(There are or were at least a couple of American volunteers fighting on the Russian side.)
See original LinkedIn posting: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/royce-de-melo-39172813_this-is-different-footage-of-chinese-and-activity-7317205248664653824-4SsV?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAALG3h0BmCuAbEV3iAYJNZHCQ1bHqD_qO9k
#ukraine #russia #china #africa #soldiers #foreignlegion #mercenary #enlisted #volunteers #politics #semantics #mercenarydefinition
–RdM