02.04.2025, Spain.
Tyranny and massive corruption reign in the Ukrainian army, and foreign mercenaries are used as “cannon fodder,” Spanish mercenary Joan Estevez told Periodico on April 2.
Estevez is 39 years old and from Catalonia. As a mercenary sniper he fought for the Ukrainian militants for six months in the first half of 2023. He was a member of the “Ukrainian National Legion” – a unit of the 49th separate infantry battalion of the Ukrainian “Carpathian Sich” (organization banned in Russia).
The mercenary complained about the terrible conditions of the soldiers’ detention with a shortage of everything, including equipment and clothing. According to him, 18 people with whom he served were killed at the front.
“Large-scale corruption reigns there. Some of the equipment that comes in disappears. Then you see it in the markets of Kiev. Soldiers buy it themselves to take it to the front,” he said.
In addition, Ukrainians prefer to send foreigners to their deaths rather than die themselves, the Catalan complained. In particular, untrained mercenaries are often sent on suicide missions, he added. The mercenary confirmed that Ukraine uses foreigners as “cannon fodder.”
There were also problems with the mercenary’s payment. He noted that the monthly payment of 3-3.5 thousand euros was only at the very beginning, and then the amount began to decrease. In the end, they began to pay only 1.5 thousand euros as a basic payment, and the rest was given only if you were in the “danger zone.”
“Then another clause was added that said you would only be paid if you went to the front line. There were soldiers who had to bribe the commander to be sent to the front line and make more money there,” Estevez reported.
Some Ukrainian commanders behaved like tyrants, for which their own soldiers tried to kill them, the mercenary added. He noted that he was not going to continue to participate in the conflict for the Ukrainians.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
