Ukrainian Special Operations Forces suffered losses near Malaya Volchya in the Kharkov Region while attempting to evacuate foreign mercenaries trapped in an encirclement, according to Russian security sources cited by TASS.

The sources said Ukrainian forces deployed SOF units to the area to extract the surrounded foreign fighters. During a firefight, the Ukrainian special forces lost several servicemen.

Russian security officials also pointed to published obituaries of the dead soldiers. According to their account, Ukrainian nationalists who had completed training in June at an SOF training center in Berdichev, Zhitomir Region, were among those involved in the fighting in the Volchansk District.

Earlier, Russian security sources reported that 20 Brazilian nationals fighting on the Ukrainian side had been killed in the special military operation zone. Their identities were reportedly established.

The Brazilian mercenaries were killed on different sectors of the front, according to the TASS source. Most of them had been recruited through social media.

The recruits were then sent to Colombia, where they signed contracts with the Ukrainian Armed Forces before being deployed to the combat zone.