Irrelevant and missing the point as usual. It is irrelevant how many nukes Ruzzia and up to a point where they have them.
-snip-
Where NATO places its nukes is completely irrelevant. Why you root for global exponential growth for nuclear conflicts also stinks of desperation. You're just changing your narrative to "either NATO expands to Ukraine or we start a nuclear war,
but try to blame Putin for it". That's clinical insanity.
✂️.
I think it's nothing new here. Already in first year of war we saw people mainly from Nepal, some African countries fighting for Russia.
I don't think Russia is hiring them because they're running out of people. It's more just a way to get some cheap meat. And now it doesn't looks that number of such mercenaries is very significant.
Well, the report I saw on the Cuban people going to Russia to fight for Putin was talking about four hundred civilians who became military units in the front, that is indeed quite an small number of soldiers, which is unlikely to make a difference on the result of battles by its own, so I am not sure what is the objective of this recruitment campaign. It could be about slowly recruiting foreigners, so Putin would not need to gather his own population and levy for more native Russians to go fight in the front.
I am not sure I would call these people to be used as "cheap meat" as you call them, if the numbers of their salaries and the possibility on getting Russian citizenship are not unfunded, then they are being paid very good salaries, considering they come from a third world country like Cuba. I am not informed on those citizens from Nepal and African countries though, It makes sense something like that could be happening.
Mercs are pretty much cheap meat. Throw them in first just make sure not to collect bodies so you can just mark them as missing and not pay out
Ukraine was a magnet for foreign fighters. After 2 bruising years, many are disillusioned or dead.
...
Some volunteers barely lasted a week. A Russian missile strike in March 2022 hit a base near Lviv being used for foreign fighters.
According to Ukrainian officials, dozens of Ukrainians were killed and more than 100 foreign volunteers injured, ending their campaigns before they began.
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International fighters proved "more expendable than Ukrainian soldiers for high-risk operations," Pugliese said.
Indeed, Larson, who headed a 25-man platoon of legionaries in 2022, said he and his men were a "sacrificial unit."
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"We were a speed bump," he said. "If the Russians had come, we could have held them up for maybe an hour."
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According to Larson, who continues to help recruiters for the Legion, sign-ups have dwindled by two thirds since the flood of March 2022.
"Half the signups are from Latin America now," he noted, a big shift.
In the fall of 2023, the Legion began admitting Spanish-speaking applicants, many of whom were inadmissible before, Pugliese told BI.
Some had made it in but were mistreated by their officers, he said.
The new Bolivar Battalion, for example, was formed by fighters from Venezuela, Ecuador, Argentina, and Colombia and was is led by a Venezuelan anti-government fighter.
Many are former professional soldiers from Colombia, battle-hardened fighting drug cartels and rebel groups in their homeland.
Experienced non-commissioned officers can earn four times as much as back home, or even more, the Associated Press reported.
Latin Americans "have different motivations from typical Western soldiers," Larson told BI.
"They're there for the money."
And hundreds are heading to fight in Ukraine, where many make four times as much as experienced non-commissioned officers earn in Colombia, or even more.
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Retired Colombian soldiers began to head overseas in the early 2000s to work for U.S. military contractors protecting infrastructure including oil wells in Iraq.
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Corporals in Colombia get a basic salary of around $400 a month, while experienced drill sergeants can earn up to $900. Colombia’s monthly minimum wage is currently $330.
In Ukraine any member of the armed forces, regardless of citizenship, is entitled to a monthly salary of up to $3,300, depending on their rank and type of service. They are also entitled to up to $28,660 if they are injured, depending on the severity of the wounds. If they are killed in action, their families are due $400,000 compensation
In Colombia, word about recruitment to the Ukrainian army spreads mostly through social media. Some of the volunteers who already fight in Ukraine share insights on the recruitment process on platforms such as TikTok or WhatsApp.
$400k of blood money, might sound like a good deal for some poor souls. I mean everyone of course is fighting to protect democracy in Ukraine
