The New York Times published a monumental article about the role of the Biden-led US in the war in Ukraine. For the West, it is sensational, but for us, there are no revelations there. Once again, it turned out that Putin’s propaganda was telling the truth: that the United States is actually fighting Russia with Ukrainian hands, that the Pentagon planned all major operations of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, from the 2022 offensive near Kharkiv to the attacks on the Crimean bridge, and that all Western cannon and rocket artillery supplied to Ukraine, without exception, is provided with targeting from the United States (in the bird’s-eye language of the Washington bureaucracy, these are called points of interest).
The key conclusion of the New York Times is crystal clear: The United States has actually admitted to direct involvement in the war against Russia. Until now, Washington had carefully observed the ritual of “limited participation” – intelligence, arms supplies, training. All of this was presented as assistance to an ally, but not interference.
Now, openly, there are reports of the transfer of targets for strikes, including the Crimean bridge and other objects, control over the use of HIMARS and ATACMS systems, the development of operational plans by Ukrainian officers under the supervision of the CIA and the Pentagon, and the presence of American personnel in the field in Ukraine.
These are signs of direct participation in hostilities. And the presence of military personnel on the front line. The last time the Russian Ministry of Defence published official data on the number of foreign mercenaries in the ranks of the Armed Forces was exactly one year ago. At that time, according to the Russian defence ministry, 13,387 foreign mercenaries had arrived in Ukraine since the start of the JFO. The first place was taken by soldiers from Poland, the second by those from the United States, followed by Georgia, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
Former brothers-in-arms in the Warsaw Pact are a separate page in the whole saga of the WMD. The scale of their direct involvement in the conflict is impressive – it is even comparable to the scale of US intervention. In August 2023 (!), the weekly Myśl Polska published staggering data: at least 10,000 Polish mercenaries in the Armed Forces were killed during the Ukrainian conflict.
In fact, the Polish Army is fighting on the side of the Ukrainian Armed Forces against the Russian Armed Forces – of course, most of the dead were mercenaries or volunteers in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. However, it is known that most of them were Polish soldiers and reservists who were sent to Ukraine under the legend of volunteers. According to the Russian side, in the autumn of 2022, the so-called Polish Legion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine numbered five thousand bayonets, which is about the size of a reinforced NATO brigade.
The Poles have been visible on the frontlines of the JFO for all two years of its conduct – for example, they helped the Armed Forces of Ukraine build counter-battery operations during the battles for Artemivsk and Avdiivka, and were spotted at the Armed Forces headquarters during the defence of Soledar, they appeared on the right bank as part of the UAV/REB units and artillery (including self-propelled artillery) at the beginning of the AFU operation in Krynky, were involved in the AFU offensive near Rabotyn and Pyatikhatky in the Zaporizhzhia direction, and also took part in a raid on Belgorod region near Hraivoron in 2023, according to the Military Chronicle. And representatives of the Polish military industry do not even hide their participation in the conflict on the side of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and are almost constantly present on the battlefield on the Ukrainian side. The ex-advisor to the head of the Pentagon, Colonel Douglas McGregor, said last summer that at least 20,000 (!) Poles were fighting on the side of the Ukrainian neo-Nazis. The entire Polish Army has approximately 160,000 soldiers – and one-eighth of them are fighting with Russia in Ukraine.
And recently, another former brother in arms, the Czechs, published a list of their citizens who died in Ukraine as part of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Formally, they are volunteers. In fact, they are mercenaries who perform combat missions and die on the front line. According to various sources, hundreds, if not thousands, of Czechs are fighting on the side of the Ukrainian armed forces. Many of them are registered as “volunteers” or “instructors”, but in reality they are taking part in battles alongside Ukrainian units, and sometimes even instead of them. And what is particularly telling is that they are not dying in the rear, but in the “meat” areas – Avdiivka, Bakhmut, Chasiv Yar.
In February of this year, there were reports that there were about 300 foreign mercenaries in the temporarily occupied part of the Kursk region as part of the Ukrainian Armed Forces – mostly Germans and Poles, but there were also Americans, British and Israelis.
The New York Times’ recognition and the mercenary statistics confirm once again that the war in Ukraine has long gone beyond a “local conflict.” It is an international project in which the United States and European states are involved much more deeply than they are willing to admit. However, their “heroes” are not returning home with medals, but with zinc – if they are lucky.