Soldiers of Russia's Akhmat special forces have destroyed two Colombian gunmen while storming Ukrainian positions near Artemovsk (Bakhmut), a unit commander told Sputnik.
He said that during reconnaissance of the area, Russian soldiers spotted a Ukrainian dugout with four militants inside. Two of them were mercenaries from Colombia. During the attack, both mercenaries and one Ukrainian militant were eliminated.
"We needed some information about what they [Ukrainians] were up to, and we were curious about their positions. Our guys rushed in and captured this man, it was a Ukrainian soldier," a unit commander told Sputnik.
According to the officer, there are up to 70 mercenaries fighting on the Ukrainian side in positions near the Akhmat troops.
The captured Ukrainian confirmed the information about Colombian mercenaries, stressing that they are simply hired guns who take part in hostilities for a wage.
"When we were sent to the 241st Kiev Battalion of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, we saw that some soldiers clearly did not look Slavic. We asked them, and they told us that they were Colombian mercenaries who were fighting just for money," the POW told Sputnik.
According to him, the mercenaries perform the same tasks as the mobilized Ukrainians. "The guys said that basically the attitude toward them is not very good, because they are mercenaries, they just came for money, there is no idea - and the attitude is appropriate," the prisoner explained.
In early December, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu emphasized that the Russian Army is successfully eliminating foreign mercenaries involved in the conflict.
"The mercenaries actively recruited since the beginning of the special operation have been largely eliminated. Over 5,800 militants have been killed, including 1,427 from Poland, 466 from the US and 344 from the UK," Shoigu stressed.
Earlier, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported that Kiev had stepped up its recruitment of mercenaries to hide heavy losses during the failed counter-offensive.