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They are coming from all over.

Some articles on this topic (Russian sourced- not sure if they’ll open for you, in the home of the free. I’m currently overseas):

https://tass.com/politics/1644821 They report on numbers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Legion_(Ukraine) That should work, it’s Wiki.

The problem you’re seeing is that in the West you have mass censorship, we simply block the other side, but allow what literally is “propaganda” (the government meddling with perceptions to influence behaviors) by Ukraine. The Ukrainians are very open about this: https://www.nrada.gov.ua/en/european-media-support-ukraine/

The term “propaganda” had a meaning, i.e. government perception management, but today is used colloquially as a pejorative simply to declare any information derogatory to ones own side as bad, wrong, and which should be ignored. But the fact is, what once was illegal, NATO nations conducting Psyop campaigns which impact the population of another NATO country has today become a reality.

Of course countries are keeping count. BDA is something which everyone tracks, but it’s us that never reports about how many mercenaries we have in country, how many casualties Ukraine has taken et. al. This is a report from February 2022, not long after the war began: NUMBER OF FOREIGN MERCENARIES IN UKRAINE https://eng.mil.ru/files/Number%20of%20foreign%20mercenaries%20in%20Ukraine.pdf

Since then, it appears as if recruitment has picked up in other places, namely South America. The names and faces of those captured or killed that are from Columbia and Brazil has increased by an order of magnitude since wars begin. That makes sense since we will allow Ukraine to recruit in this area which is in our sphere of influence. Poverty combined with large numbers of military aged and even trained males makes these areas ideal for recruitment. Realize, the Ukraine uses their state department i.e. consulates and embassy as defacto recruiting stations: https://visitukraine.today/blog/1797/how-to-join-the-international-legion-of-defense-of-ukraine-detailed-instructions-for-foreigners. At a little over $1000 a month for some, these recruits are very cheap.

Here’s a video report from the Hindustan Times: https://youtu.be/eWAXMAkLotI?feature=shared Poverty as you have in Columbia, Brazil, Bolivia, is fertile ground for recruitment.

It’s a sad state of affairs when you need to reach out to foreign media because you have more confidence in them providing a more comprehensive picture of the war than our own which has completely chosen sides and reports more like a German WWII news real: https://youtu.be/s1rsiK1LIKk?feature=shared (1945 and the Germans are reporting how they’re winning).

The Hindustan Times makes a lot of sense. When I fought against Mutadr al Sadr in Iraq, his forces fluctuated from day to day, by a lot. These are not regular forces where people are on a contract or required to stick around. If they head home Ukraine really has no leverage and once the casualties start rolling in, many folks will think twice about strapping a go-cam to their head and chest and wanting to become their neighborhood hero.

I do not doubt that the number of foreign fighters in Ukraine has decreased substantially since March 2022. But it’s hard to get an accurate assessment since you have government censorship on our side and a media that is very pro Democrat, with Biden being a Democrat, and which is owned by the same folks who wanted this war essentially (it’s a corporate media owned and beholden to our oligarchs). So what we’re fed isn’t what is, but rather what some people think you should know so that you act accordingly. News is itself a commercial, with a political message.

Back to your question, it appears that the number of mercenaries in country culminated at around 20,000 a little over a year ago (March - May 2022).

But it’s all hard to tell, since our news is just about 9 year old girls with yellow and blue ribbons in their hair, sucking a lollipop and holding a shotgun. Ukraine good, Russia bad, really dumb stuff but the sort of stuff which moves the masses (emotions win over reason, almost always).

If you remember Iraq you had every night the news showing the faces of the casualties, giving their name, where they are from, and then providing a tally by week and month. That is because the news media was against the war, ever since the Democrat party which voted for the war decided to go against the war in the 2004 elections. In this war you see little about the US dead, and there are some, you don’t hear the media question the morality of the use of mercenaries as they did in Iraq with Blackwater etc. You don’t hear any questions about the use of DU ammunition as in Iraq. You don’t hear long stories about the mismanagement of government money, people forced to fight as we did with endless stories about “stop loss” activation of IRR in Iraq etc. Yet Ukraine is recruiting people by force, going so far as to send folks to funerals because maybe family will assemble and a young military aged male can get caught. The point being, the news gets to choose what they write about and how they spin it.

While in Iraq every act of abuse (Abu Gahrib) was highlighted, now we hear nothing, even though there are many, many, such cases on the Ukraine’s side (more amateurish, less disciplined, more hate and anger). You have stories about how POW were executed, the use of churches, hospitals and schools to hide military units... In Iraq collateral damage was talked about extensively, now it doesn’t exist, unless it’s the Russians.

Because the Euros are all lockstep with us on this, their media (even more government influenced and controlled) is the same way, one sided pro Ukraine spin, support the war effort and don’t talk about anything bad. Imagine had we used US tax dollars to train and equip Nazi’s in 2003, do you think it would have gotten just a little press coverage as was/is literally the case in Ukraine?

When you censor one side (Russia), have a media that generally supports the leadership (Democrat), and which has a financial conflict of interest in supporting that side (owned or beholden to corporations / financial institutions and oligarchs which wanted this), what you end up with is what you are seeing today: total one sided coverage.