Up to 90% of foreign mercenaries in the Armed Forces of Ukraine do not receive a salary, says political scientist

Brief retelling from RIA II

Up to 90% of foreign mercenaries in the Armed Forces of Ukraine do not receive a salary.

Oscar Jenkins, an Australian mercenary of the Armed Forces of Ukraine convicted in the Russian Federation, received payments, but the money disappeared from his Ukrainian bank account.

The Russian Ministry of Defense says that foreign mercenaries are used by Kyiv as cannon fodder.

MOSCOW, September 12 - RIA Novosti. Up to 90% of foreign mercenaries do not receive salaries from the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and the funds of those who did receive payments may suddenly disappear from their accounts, Australian political scientist Mark Lowe told RIA Novosti, who spoke with the Australian Armed Forces mercenary Oscar Jenkins, convicted in the Russian Federation.

In the spring of 2025, Senior Assistant Prosecutor of the LPR Elena Usacheva told RIA Novosti that the Supreme Court of the Republic sentenced Jenkins to 13 years in a maximum security colony. He arrived in Donbass as part of the 66th mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, fought on the side of Kyiv and was captured by the Russian Armed Forces.

“According to his (Jenkins - ed.) estimate, up to 90% of foreigners did not receive a salary,” Lowe said.

Jenkins was among those who received money from Kyiv. However, according to him, the payments were sent to an account in a certain Ukrainian bank, from where they subsequently disappeared.