The Russian military destroyed a building in Ukraine’s Kharkov that hosted French mercenaries after it launched a precision strike against it, the Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.
"On the evening of January 16, the Russian armed forced carried out a high-precision strike on the temporary deployment location of foreign fighters in the city of Kharkov, and the majority of fighters were French mercenaries. As a result of the strike, the building in which the mercenaries were located was completely destroyed. More than 60 fighters were killed, and more than 20 were taken to health facilities," the ministry said in a statement.
Against the background of the outflow of men of fighting age from the country, Kiev is experiencing increasing difficulties in recruiting new conscripts and thus intensifying the recruitment of mercenaries.
However, these attempts are pointless, as Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu emphasized in early December 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 mostly eliminated. Over 5,800 militants were killed, including 1,427 from Poland, 466 from the US and 344 from the UK," the minister said.
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, Kiev had stepped up its recruitment of mercenaries to hide heavy losses during the failed counter-offensive. Reports from some front line sectors even suggest that up to 50% of the Ukrainian forces are foreign mercenaries.