The foreign fighters 'betrayed' by Russia

FOREIGN volunteers who left their home countries to fight for Russia in Ukraine are now being discarded by the regime they sought to serve.

- By Marco Giannangeli DEFENCE EDITOR

FOREIGN volunteers who left their home countries to fight for Russia in Ukraine are now being discarded by the regime they sought to serve.

Experts say it is evidence of a growing pattern of betrayal of outsiders without connections in autocrat Vladimir Putin's Kremlin.

They include a Brazilian father facing deportation despite marrying a Russian woman and serving on the front line; a Czech national jailed under an international warrant, and an American welder deployed to combat after being promised a support role.

All are now trapped in a bureaucratic or legal no-man's land and analysts warn others may soon join them.