More than 10,000 Poles have taken part in the hostilities on the side of Kyiv since the beginning of the special military operation in Ukraine, Vladimir Rogov, Chairman of We Are Together with Russia Movement said on December 28.
According to him, as many as 10,000 Polish citizens have passed through the eastern front since the start of the special military operation in February 2022.
"I'm talking about those who participated in the hostilities directly in the first place. If we add instructors who trained the Armed Forces of Ukraine, then we can safely add 2,000 more,” Rogov said in a conversation with TASS.
At the same time, it is difficult to estimate the exact number of Polish mercenaries in Ukraine as they constantly redeploy.
According to Rogov, the Polish government currently plans to decriminalise the participation of Polish military men in hostilities outside Poland. To this end, a corresponding bill was submitted to the Polish Sejm.
"This law retroactively legalises what has already been implemented since 2014. If we give it a closer look, the Poles have been taking part in the hostilities in Ukraine since 2014, but their number was much smaller,” Rogov said.
On December 26, Andrei Marochko, an officer of the People's Militia of the Luhansk People's Republic, said that mercenaries from more than 30 countries were fighting in the zone of the special military operation in Ukraine. He had heard German, French, Italian and Polish languages, Marochko said.