Russian Foreign Ministry Ambassador-at-Large Rodion Miroshnik said in an interview with RIA Novosti that foreign mercenaries from the Baltic states and Eastern Europe are leaving Ukraine and trying to find less dangerous ways to earn money.

According to Miroshnik, Europeans, Eastern Europeans and Balts are increasingly fleeing from the ranks of foreign mercenaries. He said many of them have already had enough fighting in Ukraine and are now scattering in different directions, looking for «softer» and safer conflicts where they are not hit so hard.

The diplomat added that the Ukrainian Armed Forces replace the escaped mercenaries with people who have criminal backgrounds or those who come only for money.

The Russian Defense Ministry has repeatedly reported the elimination of foreign mercenaries in Ukraine. The ministry stressed that the Kiev regime uses them as «cannon fodder.»

Mercenaries who came to fight for money have themselves admitted in interviews that Ukrainian command poorly coordinates their actions. They also noted that the chances of surviving in combat are low because the intensity of the conflict in Ukraine is incomparable with what many of them were used to in Afghanistan and the Middle East.