Jordan Mulins does not know exactly what hit him – he only remembers the pain he felt when shrapnel pierced his left calf. Mr Mullins, a 26-year-old from Oshawa, OD, was fighting in Ukraine when his unit encountered a Russian armored personnel carrier during a recent battle for a “coastal city” that Mr Mullins preferred not to name. He said he and his unit – a volunteer formation known as the Georgian Legion, made up mostly of Georgian fighters – were “crossing a road” when the Russians opened fire. “I caught shrapnel in my left foot either from a round or maybe from what hit – I’m not sure. “I just felt a torturous fire in the back of my calf,” he said in an exchange of messages. Now that he is recovering at his home in Canada, Mr Mullins is proof that there are Canadians fighting on the front lines in Ukraine. However, he mocks the Russian Defense Ministry’s claim last week that 162 Canadians were killed in the four-month war. “It simply came to our notice then. I’m still in touch with most Westerners I have met in the country, and believe me, all the Canadians I have met are still fighting and will continue… I’ve heard of injured Canadians, but [none killed in action] so far, “he said. “I’m sure our government should address more than 100 of our citizens who are dying in a foreign conflict, right?” In addition to Mr Mullins – who says he is recovering well and wants to return to Ukraine and what he calls a struggle for the country’s freedom – at least one other Canadian was injured in the war when Russian cruise missiles hit the Yavoriv training center in western Ukraine. . Russian Defense Ministry figures released Friday in state-run media show nearly 7,000 Western fighters – the Kremlin calls them “mercenaries” – who have fought and suffered heavy casualties. (Foreign fighters enlisted in recognized Ukrainian Army units receive a basic salary of about $ 630 a month.) According to Russian data, which is not substantiated by any data, 601 Canadians have traveled to Ukraine to fight, number two after the 1,831 Poles who are said to have declared participation. The United States, Romania and Britain are said to have more than 500 citizens fighting in Ukraine. The numbers are likely to be used for domestic consumption – as “proof” that Russia is at war not only with Ukraine but also with NATO and the West. What really impresses is the alleged number of aliens killed. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said 1,956 foreigners had been “destroyed” since the start of the war, including 162 Canadians. Jason Kung, Canada’s spokesman for World Affairs, said the Canadian government was aware of the figures released by the Russian Ministry of Defense. “The Russian regime has long used misinformation provided by the state at home and abroad, including to create a pretext for its illegal invasion of Ukraine. “Therefore, no information provided by the regime can be taken as a face value,” Kung said. No funerals have been reported for Canadian fighters in Ukraine. Damien Magrou, a French-Norwegian lawyer representing the International Legion – a Ukrainian army unit set up after President Volodymyr Zelensky called on foreign volunteers to help his country – said that while the legion did not provide statistics, Russian claim is false. “I can say for sure that the number of people allegedly killed is completely untrue. “As far as I know, we still do not have a single victim from Canada.” Mr Magrou said he believed it was all a propaganda attempt to intimidate foreign fighters who may be thinking of heading to Ukraine. “It does not work,” he said. Mamuka Mamulashvili, the commander of the Georgian Legion, said he currently had four Canadians in his unit, other than Mr Mullins, and did not know any Canadians who had been killed in battle. However, some foreigners lost their lives fighting for Ukraine. At least two British civilians are known to have been killed in the fighting, most recently Jordan Gatley, a former British soldier who died on June 10 in the besieged city of Siverodonetsk in eastern Ukraine. An American fighter – a longtime resident of Kiev who has enlisted in the regular Ukrainian army – told The Globe that he believes “one or two” US citizens have also died in the war. Several foreign fighters have also disappeared or been arrested in recent weeks. Aiden Aislin, 28, and Shaun Pinner, 48, from Britain, were arrested near the Russian-occupied port of Mariupol in April. Both were longtime residents of Ukraine and part of its regular army. Together with Moroccan national Saaudun Brahim, they were convicted of terrorist charges on June 9 by a court in the so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic”, an unrecognized puppet state established on Ukrainian soil by Moscow. The three men have been sentenced to death. The British government denounced the process as a false trial and called on Russia to respect the Geneva Conventions, a set of international treaties governing the treatment of prisoners of war. Russia claims that men are mercenaries and therefore not covered by these rules. Two U.S. fighters also went missing near the city of Kharkov, near Ukraine’s border with Russia, last week. The Kremlin-run RT news channel has since broadcast interviews with Alexander Drueke and Andy Huynh – both US Army veterans – and said they too were being held in the Donetsk People’s Republic. In its online coverage, RT wrote that “the stakes for Drueke and Huynh are high” due to the death sentence imposed on the captured British and Moroccan fighters. It is illegal under the Geneva Conventions to broadcast forced interviews with prisoners of war. Mr Drueke, 39, and Mr Huynh, 27, were not members of the International Legion or the regular Ukrainian army, but instead reportedly fought for loosely organized volunteer groups that sometimes operate outside the control of the Ukrainian administration. . The two of them allegedly separated from the rest of their unit while they were on a mission. A third U.S. fighter jet is also missing in Ukraine, according to his family and the State Department. An unknown number of aliens – including some Canadians – have come to Ukraine planning to enroll, only to find the formal process frustrating to navigate. Some end up joining unofficial voluntary formations. On a recent visit to the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, The Globe met a group of about a dozen men – including at least four Canadians, as well as others from the US, France and Mexico – who spent their days wearing military uniforms and drinking local bars while complaining that no one would give them a gun and send them to the front line. The men refused to give their names, but vowed to find a way to take part in the fight. With a quote from Steven Chase in Ottawa
