Volunteers from 72 countries serving in AFU, their number is increasing – Milevskyi

Volunteers from 72 countries serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, 40% of whom are representatives of South America.

The acting head of the coordination department for military service of foreigners in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Kostiantyn Milevskyi, has said this to hromadske.

According to him, at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, 100-150 foreigners joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine per month, now this figure reaches approximately 600.

"We can say that the percentage of the presence of other citizens in the Armed Forces of Ukraine has increased. This was also influenced by the fact that the Center for Recruiting Foreigners has already begun full-fledged work in our country," Milevskyi noted.

In total, as of now, more than 8,000 volunteers from other countries have joined the units of the Ground Forces.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine do not provide statistics on the origin of volunteers for security reasons. However, they confirm that "a lot" are currently joining the Ukrainian army, in particular, citizens of Colombia, from whom separate units are created. Their motivations are different, adds Milevskyi. The financial factor also plays an important role.

"Indeed, they themselves have admitted many times that the level of wages in the Armed Forces of Ukraine is currently significantly higher than in their Armed Forces. But these are also people with military experience, and so they want to continue what they did in their countries and improve this experience here. And of course, receive a decent salary for it," added Milevskyi.

We will remind, a German politician from the pro-russian AfD party of Germany secretly fought as a volunteer on the side of Ukraine.