The relatives of the American mercenary from the PMCs confirmed to CNN and FOX News his death in Ukraine
American media reported the death of a 22-year-old mercenary in Ukraine. And the British Foreign Office confirmed the death of one Briton and the disappearance of the second. It is assumed that they fought on the side of the Ukrainian armed forces.
22-year-old American
US citizen Willie Joseph Kansel died on Monday, April 25, fighting on the side of the AFU. The mercenary's family confirmed this information to CNN.
A 22-year-old man worked for a private military company (PMCs). Kansel's mother said that his employer sent him to Ukraine and paid the young man a salary while he was fighting.
According to her, Willie Joseph is a former Marine. Shortly before the start of Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, he signed a contract with the PMCs, and also continued to serve as an officer at the Tennessee Correctional Institution in his full-time job.
When the battles began in Ukraine, the PMCs began to look for mercenaries to be sent to the war zone. Cancell agreed to go.
"He wanted to go there because he believed in what Ukraine is fighting for. He wanted to be a part of it, to contain it (conflict - "Newspaper.En") there, so that he would not come here, and that, perhaps, American soldiers would then not have to intervene in the situation," the mercenary's mother said.
She added that in Ukraine her son fought alongside soldiers "from a variety of countries." And the people who informed her about the death of Kansel noted that his body was not found.
"There were people with him, but they would have been killed if they tried to take his body with them. But we would like him to come back to us," the mother explained.
Kansel has a wife and a seven-month-old child at home. The victim's wife told FOX News about her loss.
"My husband was very brave, he is a hero. I didn't expect to become a widow at 23 or that our son would grow up without a father. All I want is for him to come home so that we can organize a normal funeral," the widow said.
36-year-old Briton
The British Foreign Office confirmed to Sky News that one citizen of the country was killed in Ukraine, and the second was missing. It is assumed that they fought against Russian troops as volunteers, but this information has not yet been officially confirmed: the kingdom's Foreign Ministry has not provided details about the men's activities.
"We can confirm that a British citizen was killed in Ukraine, and we support his family… We are aware of a British citizen missing in Ukraine, and we support his family. We are urgently looking for additional information," a representative of the British foreign Ministry told the TV channel.
The ministry also did not disclose when exactly the British citizen was killed and the second was missing.
The TV channel clarified that British citizens and other foreigners come to Ukraine not only to participate in hostilities, but also to provide humanitarian assistance to residents of the country.
In addition, Sky News managed to find out the name of the deceased. It turned out to be 36-year-old Scott Sibley. Friends said that before being sent to Ukraine, the man served in the Royal Logistics Corps.
7 thousand mercenaries
On the eve of the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova said that about 7 thousand mercenaries from more than 60 countries arrived in Ukraine after the start of the military special operation of the Russian Federation.
"In total, according to the Ministry of Defense of our country, since the beginning of the special military operation in Ukraine, almost 7 thousand foreign mercenaries from 63 countries have flocked there," Zakharova said at a briefing.
According to her, among them there are citizens of Poland, the USA, Canada, Romania, Great Britain and Georgia.
On March 3, the official representative of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, Major General Igor Konashenkov, said that the West had increased the sending of mercenaries to Ukraine.
"We draw your attention to the fact that against the background of the encirclement and destruction by the Russian Armed Forces of the main groups of Ukrainian nationalists, Western countries have increased the dispatch of contractors of private military companies to combat areas," he said.
And Russian President Vladimir Putin, at a meeting with the Council of Legislators on April 27, noted that the number of foreign mercenaries in Ukraine is growing.
"The day before yesterday, at the board of the Prosecutor General's Office, I spoke about the need to form a detailed and irrefutable legislative framework for all monstrous crimes, violations of international humanitarian law by neo-Nazis, foreign mercenaries, and there are more and more of them there. Once again, several people were destroyed, several were detained. The Defense Ministry will soon present them to the public," the president said.
He stressed that the "atrocities" committed by mercenaries will necessarily be given an objective legal assessment. "But we need to raise all these issues at the international level, including at the parliamentary level," the head of state noted.
Maria Shustrova