Russia claims that 162 Canadian foreign fighters have been killed in Ukraine. There is no evidence to support that

Jordan Mullins doesn’t know exactly what hit him; he only remembers the pain he felt when the shrapnel pierced his left calf.

Mr. Mullins, a 26-year-old from Oshawa, Ontario, was fighting in the Ukraine when his unit encountered a Russian armored personnel carrier during a recent battle for a “coastal town” that Mr. Mullins would rather not to name. He said he and his unit, a volunteer formation known as the Georgian Legion, made up mostly of fighters from the country of Georgia, were “walking through a street” when the Russians opened fire.

“I caught shrapnel in my left leg, either from a round or maybe from what it hit, I’m not sure. I just felt an unbearable fire in the back of my calf, ”he recounted in an exchange of messages.

Now recovering in Canada, Mr. Mullins is proof that there are Canadians fighting on the front lines in Ukraine. However, he scoffs at a Russian Defense Ministry claim last week that 162 Canadians have been killed in the four-month war.

“That is not accurate at all. I’m still in touch with most of the Westerners I’ve met in the country, and believe me, all the Canadians I’ve met are still fighting and will continue to… I’ve heard of Canadians getting hurt, but [none killed in action] so far,” he said. “I’m pretty sure our government would have to deal with over 100 of our citizens who die in a foreign conflict, right?”

In addition to Mr. Mullins, who says he is recovering well and is eager to return to Ukraine and what he calls a fight for the country’s freedom, at least one other Canadian was injured in the war, when Russian cruise missiles hit crashed into Yavoriv’s training. center in western Ukraine.

Figures from the Russian Defense Ministry, published in state-controlled media on Friday, paint a picture of nearly 7,000 Western fighters – the Kremlin calls them “mercenaries” – who have joined the fight and are suffering heavy losses. (Foreign fighters who join recognized units of the Ukrainian army receive a basic salary of about US$630 per month.)

According to Russian figures, which are not supported by any evidence, 601 Canadians traveled to Ukraine to fight, a number second only to the 1,831 Poles said to have signed up. The United States, Romania and Britain are said to have more than 500 citizens fighting in Ukraine.

The numbers are likely intended for domestic consumption, as “proof” that Russia is fighting not only Ukraine, but also NATO and the West. What really draws attention is the supposed number of foreigners killed. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov claimed that 1,956 foreigners had been “destroyed” since the start of the war, including 162 Canadians.

Jason Kung, a spokesman for Global Affairs Canada, said the Canadian government is aware of the figures released by the Russian Defense Ministry.

“The Russian regime has long employed state-sponsored disinformation at home and abroad, including to create a pretext for its illegal invasion of Ukraine. As such, no information provided by the regime can be taken at face value,” said Mr. Kung.

Funerals of Canadian fighters in Ukraine are not known. Damien Magrou, a Franco-Norwegian lawyer who is spokesman for the International Legion for the Defense of Ukraine, a unit of the Ukrainian army created after President Volodymyr Zelensky asked for foreign volunteers to help his country, said that while the legion provides statistics, the Russian claim is false.

“I can say with certainty that the number of people allegedly killed is completely false. As far as I know, we haven’t had a single Canadian victim yet.”

Magrou said he believes it was all a propaganda effort meant to scare off foreign fighters who might be thinking of heading to Ukraine. “It’s not working,” she said.

Mamuka Mamulashvili, the commander of the Georgian Legion, said he currently had four Canadians in his unit, not including Mullins, and that he was not aware of any Canadians who had been killed in combat.

However, some foreigners have died fighting for Ukraine. At least two British citizens are known to have been killed in battle, most recently Jordan Gatley, a former British soldier who died on June 10 in the besieged city of Sieverodonetsk in eastern Ukraine. An American fighter, a longtime resident of Kyiv who has enlisted in the Ukrainian regular army, told The Globe and Mail that he believes “one or two” American citizens have also died in the war.

Several foreign fighters have also disappeared or been captured in recent weeks. Aiden Aislin, 28, and Shaun Pinner, from Britain, 48, were captured near the Russian-occupied port city of Mariupol in April. Both were long-time residents of Ukraine and part of its regular army.

They were sentenced, along with Moroccan citizen Saaudun Brahim, on terrorism charges on June 9 by a court of the so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic”, an unrecognized puppet state established on Ukrainian territory by Moscow. All three men have been sentenced to death.

The British government denounced the trial as a sham trial and called on Russia to abide by the Geneva Conventions, a series of international treaties that govern the treatment of prisoners of war. Russia maintains that the men are mercenaries and therefore not covered by those rules.

Two US fighters also went missing near the city of Kharkiv, near Ukraine’s border with Russia, last week. Since then, the Kremlin-run news channel RT has aired interviews with Alexander Drueke and Andy Huynh, both US Army veterans, and reported that they, too, were in the custody of the Donetsk People’s Republic. In its online coverage, RT wrote that “the stakes are high for Drueke and Huynh” due to the death penalty imposed on captured British and Moroccan fighters.

Under the Geneva Conventions, it is illegal to broadcast forced interviews with prisoners of war.

Mr. Drueke, 39, and Mr. Huynh, 27, were not members of the International Legion or the Ukrainian regular army, but reportedly fought for loosely organized volunteer groups that sometimes operate outside the control of the Ukrainian command structure. The two reportedly became separated from the rest of their unit during a mission.

A third American fighter is also missing in Ukraine, according to his family and the US State Department.

An unknown number of foreigners, including some Canadians, have come to Ukraine with the intention of enlisting, only to find the official process frustrating. Some end up joining unofficial volunteer formations.

On a recent visit to the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, The Globe met a group of about a dozen men, including at least four Canadians, as well as others from the US, France and Mexico, who they spent their days wearing military uniforms and drinking. in local bars while complaining that no one would give them a gun and send them to the front lines. The men refused to give their names, but vowed that they would find a way to join the fight.

With a report by Steven Chase in Ottawa