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Before getting on our high horse - there are mercenaries of various nationalities fighting on the Ukrainian side as well as the Russian side, that doesn't mean their governments support them.
mercenaries would be something like wagner. there are international volunteers within normal units of UAF, with normal pay and responsibilities just like any other unit. these chinese were promised unusually high salary and russian citizenship at the end of the contract. ukrainian foreign legion is entirely official, while this chinese recruitment seems to be covert or at least not very highly visibly public. ukrainian foreign legion also takes only people with former combat experience (iirc), it's unclear so far if chinese recruited have any, probably not considering that china has stayed out of any major war or deployment since forever. these are not the same things
In addition to comments by others in this thread I may draw your attention to the quote:
"Beijing knows about this. Russians distribute advertising videos about recruitment through Chinese social networks," Zelensky said.
How is is possible that Russians "distribute advertising videos about recruitment through Chinese social networks" without the Chinese party-state knowing this? - The answer is, it isn't. Everything that is only slightly critical of the government or inadvertently referencing to historical issues like the Tiananmen Square massacre is being censored on Chinese social media immediately. But Russia can run advertisements offering money and citizenship without Chinese censors catching on? And despite, according to Chinese officials, "Chinese citizens are prohibited from participating in foreign armed conflicts"?
(The answers to these two questions can only be, "No, because it is not very credible that this goes unnoticed by the Chinese censorship machine. ")
[Edit typo.]
The difference is that foreigners on Ukraine's side volunteer to defend a sovereign country from attack. The Chinese signed up to invade, pillage and destroy.
True. And it's also not like that's some kind of secret. That's an official branch of the Ukrainian military organization.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Legion_(Ukraine)
That's not mercenaries though, just comprised of foreign volunteers
Exactly what I was thinking. This is a fact and doesn't mean Russia is right. So I don't understand the downvotes.
Even the article mentioned that they got offered money in return.
Funny how this is being downvoted but no one can argue the facts.
I mean if there's something the Chinese have a lot it's Chineses.
I'm sure they all "volunteered"
160 people is a very tiny force, feels unlikely that this is China's official (official between Russia and China) contribution. China is a country with twice the population of Europe, and 160 guys is all they send to help?
This explanation feels more likely:
One of the captured soldiers claimed he paid 300,000 rubles (roughly $3,000) to a middleman in China to join the Russian military in exchange for the promise of citizenship, Ukraine's Luhansk military unit press service told Ukrainian Pravda earlier in the day.
People in China pay money to be sent in a meat grinder for the off chance of becoming russian citizens if they survive!?
I mean, it got them out of China, so there's that