What am I missing here—are they mercenaries or volunteers? I thought mercenaries get paid while volunteers don’t.
Thats a good question. I do not know what their status with the Ukrainian government is. In any event they are not POWs.
They are volunteers. The fact Russia cannot and will not make a distinction between volunteers and mercenaries illustrates their lack of appreciation of universal principals, international conventions of war and the truth. They cannot be dealt with and should not be tolerated in European territory. The solution is clear. Send in NATO and eject them from Ukraine -all of it. Then wall off Russia from all civilized nations.
“What am I missing here—are they mercenaries or volunteers? I thought mercenaries get paid while volunteers don’t.”
Most likely mercenaries with cover stories.
They are, supposedly, volunteers that joined the Ukrainian military.
The British “mercenaries” captured in Mariupol are Ukrainian citizens, in the Ukrainian army.
This is just Russian propaganda.
Actual, paid mercenaries are like Russia’s Wagner group, the chechens and Syrians.
The US military has tens of thousands of “ mercenaries”,according to Russia, i.e., immigrants who join the military, to gain citizenship, when their service is finished.
For some, on this site, it’s bad for the invaded country to use mercenaries, but perfectly fine for the invading country.
The hypocrisy is astounding.