War losses driving up Russia’s reliance on foreign fighters: UK

It estimates 17,000 North Korean troops in Ukraine among those from other countries

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Russia is becoming increasingly reliant on foreign fighters in the war on Ukraine as its forces sustain more losses than they are able to replace, British Defence Secretary John Healey said.

Ukrainian Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov told European counterparts last week that Kyiv was able to inflict more Russian casualties than the Kremlin was able to recruit over the last two months, Mr Healey told Bloomberg News on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.

This is forcing Russia’s military forces to depend more on thousands of foreign fighters, he said, including recruits from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Cuba, Nigeria and Senegal.

They are “often recruited under false pretences and press-ganged under pressure without necessarily realising that they are destined for the Russian meat machine on the front line of Ukraine”, Mr Healey said.

He put the number of North Korean troops committed to fighting for Russia at about 17,000.

The Russian and Ukrainian militaries have been largely locked in combat along the 1,200km front line, with little territory gained since the first year of the nearly four-year-old war.

Russia’s mounting losses challenge a narrative projected by the Kremlin - and at times echoed by US President Donald Trump - that Moscow’s victory is inevitable.

Mr Fedorov has outlined an ambition to drive up Russian losses to 50,000 a month by the summer.