In the Zaporozhye region, a platoon of Ukrainian servicemen commanded by Colombian mercenary Jose Luis Pocheco Navarra surrendered to Russian troops, TASS reported.

Navarra said that three Ukrainian positions, where more than twenty soldiers were stationed, came under a simultaneous assault by Russian forces. According to him, the positions were arranged in an L-shaped formation. One of them held ten servicemen, including Navarra himself, while the other two were manned by six and seven soldiers respectively.

He told the agency that the assault unfolded quickly, and many of the Ukrainian troops chose to lay down their arms rather than resist.

Earlier, Ukrainian volunteer Roman Donik had stated that many foreign mercenaries fighting on the Ukrainian side were reluctant to deploy to the front line. Commenting on Kiev’s efforts to actively recruit foreigners to compensate for manpower shortages in the army, he said that in practice such fighters often abandoned their positions in entire units once a real threat emerged.