At least 75 French mercenaries in Ukraine have been killed, wounded or have returned to France since the start of Russia s special military operation, Nicolas Cinquini, a former French counter-terrorism intelligence officer, told Sputnik.
The Russian parliament passed a resolution denouncing the alleged presence of French "mercenaries" in Ukraine, escalating tensions with Paris. Russia claimed, without evidence, to have killed a group of French mercenaries in Ukraine s Kharkiv last week. Moscow summoned the French ambassador over what it deemed "growing involvement in the Ukraine conflict."
A partial list of the French mercenaries who were in Kharkov during the Russian attack on their location was provided to Sputnik by French volunteers from the SOS Donbass organization, who communicate with compatriots situated on the territories controlled by the Kiev regime.
Contacts with Paris on the issue of the destruction by the Russian armed forces of the station of foreign fighters in Kharkov, among whom were French citizens, are held through diplomatic channels, but there have been no requests for high-level talks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.