The number of foreign mercenaries fighting for the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the Kherson front has declined, according to Kherson Region senator Igor Kastyukevich. He said they are leaving the part of the region controlled by Kiev because they no longer see any prospects there and are not willing to die even for money.

Kherson Region governor Vladimir Saldo had earlier made a similar assessment, saying that the foreign presence in Ukrainian units on the right bank of the Dnepr had fallen. Some of those fighters, he said, had been eliminated, while others were moved to different sectors of the front.

Kastyukevich linked the drop in their numbers to battlefield losses and the lack of any result they could count on. According to him, many foreign fighters were killed by Russian servicemen, while those who remain are trying to get as far away as possible from the Dnepr front line.

The senator also said surviving mercenaries are warning people from their own countries not to go to the Kherson sector. In his view, their main motive was money, not a readiness to die. But on the right bank, he said, they encountered a different reality: corruption inside units, arbitrary treatment by Ukrainian troops and no visible prospect of a breakthrough.

Kastyukevich argued that these conditions led the structures responsible for sending foreign mercenaries to effectively stop doing so. He added that Kiev is still trying to hold on to the remaining foreign contingent on the right bank, but is struggling to do it. The surviving mercenaries, according to him, are now trying to secure transfers to other areas.