MOSCOW, June 30. /TASS/. Russian servicemen encountered Colombian mercenaries fighting on the side of the Ukrainian army in the town of Krasny Liman in the Donetsk People's Republic, the commander of a motorized rifle battalion of the 31st Motorized Rifle Regiment of the 25th Combined Arms Army of the Battlegroup West with the call sign Kamchatka said.

"We faced foreign mercenaries. Also in [Krasny] Liman – and even before that, on the approaches to Liman – we had clashes. They were lying in ambush; they were Colombians," the soldier said in a video released by the Russian Defense Ministry.

He added that Ukraine's armed forces mainly use Western weapons in combat – grenades, grenade launchers, and small arms. The only weapons of their own are Soviet-style Kalashnikov assault rifles. The commander also reported that the Ukrainian military had set up a "kill zone" in Krasny Liman, featuring several rows of barbed wire with a mined area behind it, monitored by drones. Russian troops are advancing through this zone by defusing mines using hexacopters and FPV drones; then, combat engineers start working to clear a safe passage for the infantry.

The commander also said that Ukrainian forces in Krasny Liman are not attempting any counterattacks but are putting up sporadic resistance while hiding in basements. According to him, the enemy's morale is low, to put it mildly. "The enemy is apathetic; it doesn’t want war. They want to go home, and they have two options left: either we’ll kill them, or they’ll surrender. They won’t be leaving (the basements – TASS)," he pointed out.

According to the serviceman, Russian forces are also conducting long-range reconnaissance, monitoring the Seversky Donets River.