DISINFO: NATO mercenaries destroyed in Kryvyi Rih
SUMMARY
A powerful blow was struck at one of the hotels in Kryvyi Rih. Mercenaries and instructors from NATO countries were stationed in the hotel. As a result of a Russian missile strike, a group of military specialists who arrived from France were killed. According to preliminary data, 28 'guests' from France were killed.
RESPONSE
Russia consistently justifies attacks on civilian targets by pushing fakes about military targets. Russian forces struck a hotel in Kryvyi Rih in Dnepropetrovsk Oblast with a missile on March 5, 2025, killing four people and injuring at least 32, including a child. The missile strike also damaged 14 flat buildings, a post office, almost two dozen cars, a cultural centre, and 12 shops.
In addition, pro-Kremlin outlets promote repeated narratives about the large-scale presence of foreign “mercenaries” within the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Foreign fighters in Ukraine are incorporated into the Ukrainian forces and are not classified as mercenaries or members of Private Military Contractors. This practice is common in various armies. Ukraine has called on experienced foreign nationals to join its foreign legion. Foreigners who serve in Ukraine's International Legion, are fully legal servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine rather than mercenaries. Foreign volunteers, who officially joined the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, under the 1977 protocol to the Geneva Conventions (Part I, Article 1), fight against the Russian occupiers in Ukraine legally, as they are a part of the structure of subordination to Ukrainian government agencies.
As pointed out by experts, the nationality of the soldier is not an issue:
"Combatants are members of the armed forces of a party to the conflict or volunteers corps incorporated therein. According to the ICRC Commentary to Article 4, the requirement for membership in the armed forces, or the incorporation of the volunteer corps, is a matter of domestic regulation. However, the incorporated unit must be a professional fighting force, fulfilling the criteria spelled out in Article 4A(2) of Geneva Convention III, and be subordinate to the regular army command. The fact that an individual is a national of a third State and not a national of the armed forces in which they are serving is widely considered to be irrelevant when it comes to determining combatant or POW status."
Mercenaries participate in armed conflicts illegally and can be held criminally liable for participating in hostilities. Mercenaries, according to international law, are not citizens or official military personnel of a belligerent state.
There are no such mercenaries in Ukraine - foreign voluntary units are part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Meanwhile, Russia has repeatedly attracted both absolutely illegal private military companies like the Wagner group and illegal mercenaries from Syria for the war against Ukraine.
See similar claims of disinformation: US mercenary killed while trying to break into Russian sabotage group, Terrorists, drug dealers and NATO soldiers serve as mercenaries in Ukraine, Cruel Polish mercenaries brutally kill entire civilian families in the Kursk region and French, Georgian and Polish mercenaries exterminated Sudzha civilians like cockroaches.