Mercenaries from over 40 countries fighting near Zaporozhye - official

Mercenaries from more than 40 countries are currently engaged in combat near Zaporozhye, with the majority of them from Poland, Vladimir Rogov, who heads the We Stand With Russia movement, told TASS on Saturday.

"The number of [represented] countries has grown. Back a week ago, we said there were 34 confirmed countries, and now there are mercenaries from over 40 countries," he said.

The overwhelming majority of them are Poles, of which there are 5,000, Rogov specified. He also said Japanese, Australian, Canadian, French nationals and people from Spanish-speaking countries among mercenaries.

Rogov also recalled that more than a thousand mercenaries had already been killed in the city of Zaporozhye.

On Thursday, Rogov told TASS that he expected that Ukraine’s army would focus on the Zaporozhye Region following Russia’s withdrawal from the right bank of the Dnieper River amid Ukrainian plans to occupy the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant. He said Ukrainian military commanders had been building up a group of mercenaries near the region. According to Rogov, Ukrainian troops stationed in the Kiev-controlled part of the Zaporozhye Region have already received dozens of armored boats, while over 700 Special Operations Forces members have been trained to seize a major technological facility on the banks of the Dnieper River.