Russian media outlets love to "kill" Poles online. They regularly publish articles containing varying degrees of accuracy regarding the number of Polish volunteers allegedly killed while fighting against the Russian army. These claims are, of course, false.
We recently reported that the Russian state news agency TASS, followed by other Kremlin-aligned outlets, stated that: “As a result of a precision air strike, a group of foreign mercenaries within the 47th Independent Mechanised Brigade of the Ukrainian army was destroyed. Among those killed were Czech and Polish mercenaries.”
No explanation was given as to how the dead were identified as Czechs or Poles. One outlet illustrated its text with a photograph of soldiers in trenches, captioned: “Polish and Czech mercenaries fighting on the side of the Ukrainian army.” In fact, the image showed Ukrainian soldiers taking part in training exercises in the United Kingdom.
TASS has now reported that Vasily Prozorov stated that “The majority of mercenaries killed in Ukraine, fighting in the interests of Kyiv, are Poles and Georgians.” Prozorov is a former employee of Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) from eastern Ukraine who was dismissed for alcohol abuse. He later moved to Russia, where he has engaged in anti-Ukrainian propaganda. In 2024, he survived a failed assassination attempt in Moscow.
“I know that the Poles have suffered very heavy losses, of course, and the Georgians have suffered very heavy losses because, in percentage terms, there were simply many of them. And Canadians, Americans—yes. But now, of course, Colombians are coming to the fore,” TASS quoted him as saying.
TASS also reported that, according to figures released by Russia’s Ministry of Defence in March 2024, 13,387 foreign nationals were fighting on Ukraine’s side, of whom 5,962 were allegedly killed. Poles were said to constitute the largest group, with 1,497 deaths out of 2,960 arrivals.
Even higher—and equally unsubstantiated—numbers have been cited by other Russian officials. Aleksandr Borodai, a State Duma deputy, claimed that Polish losses were far greater. “The Poles themselves, during the Special Military Operation, have lost—I stress—not wounded and killed combined, not ‘300s’ (wounded) and not ‘200s’ (killed), but only killed—around 15,000 of their fighters. These are impressive numbers,” he said.
Прозоров: большинство убитых наемников ВСУ являются поляками и грузинами
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