The International Legion revealed the death of Bjorn Benjamin Clavis, a German of unknown age, in the Facebook post that announced Bleriot's death. The snapshot shows a man in his 30s with buzzed hair dressed in the uniform of Ukraine's Territorial Defense Force.
The Anti-Defamation League characterizes an Iron Cross tattoo on the back of his right hand as a "commonly-used hate symbol" beloved by "neo-Nazis and other white supremacists."
In March, a Ukrainian top official revealed that around 20,000 international volunteers traveled to fight Russia in Ukraine, mostly coming from European countries. This comes alongside the 16,000 foreign mercenaries whom Zelensky announced will be fighting in Ukraine.
Since the start of the military operation, Zelensky invited foreigners - including Israelis - to fight alongside the Ukrainian army against Russia.
Earlier in April, a footage also surfaced showing several Israelis fighting alongside Ukrainian forces and thanking “Israel” for its assistance. The videos, which went viral, showed the men dressed in Ukrainian military uniforms in an unspecified forested area.
Former US Army Staff Sgt. Alexander Drueke and Andy Huynh, who were both living in Alabama, were reported missing this month near the northeastern city of Kharkov, not far from the Russian border, and had traveled to Ukraine to fight alongside Ukrainian forces and teach them how to use US-made weapons, according to family members.
US President Joe Biden said Friday that he had been briefed on two Americans who had gone missing in Ukraine and urged Americans not to travel to the war-torn country.
A third former Marine Corps officer Grady Kurpasi lost contact with his family in April and was only recently identified. Willy Joseph Cancel, a fourth American veteran, was killed in Ukraine in May.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov had been asked about the mercenaries captured as prisoners in light of the war, and he said they would not be protected by the Geneva Convention's clauses on prisoners of war.
"They are not (in the) Ukrainian army, so they are not subject to the Geneva Conventions," he explained.
part 2 - End