13 min
Russia reports that at least 41 Portuguese died to fight in Ukraine until March last year.
The data are from that country’s Ministry of Defense and advanced by the Russian embassy in Lisbon, in response to an article published by Saturday magazine this week.
The embassy, in turn, condemns the text that portrays the daily life of a Portuguese fighting near the front line in Ukraine and says that although citizens present themselves as soldiers, they are mercenaries because they are being paid.
It also states that these combatants have no international legal protection and that, therefore, are considered legitimate military targets.
CNN Portugal has contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to confirm this data, but so far has no response.
Journalist Sérgio Furtado, who has been in Ukraine several times, clarifies that many cases involve Portuguese nationality mercenaries that leave the countries of origin themselves, and that these “are not Portugal”.
“What the Foreign Ministry often tells us is that it is difficult to maintain control over who is in Ukraine, because these people often do not inform the embassies of their countries they go there.”
It also realizes that most of these combatants are integrated in brigades such as the foreign legion or the Azov Battalion.
Still, “it’s hard to see how many are really in Ukraine,” he says.
