MOSCOW, February 20. /TASS/. Foreign mercenaries, hired to fight for the Ukrainian side, are paid between 30,000 and 100,000 hryvnas ($820-2,734), Russia’s Investigative Committee Chairman Alexander Bastrykin told TASS on Monday.
"The investigation has obtained information that the Kiev regime, with the support of the collective West, encourages the participation of mercenaries in combat actions on the side of Ukraine, which is prohibited by international norms," he said in an interview with TASS.
"We have established their order of recruitment, training and participation in combat actions at the sum of bonus payments ranging between 30,000 and 100,000 hryvnias [between $820 and 2,734]," he said.
Bastrykin noted that foreigners, who arrive as volunteers to Ukraine, are often granted the Ukrainian citizenship under a simplified procedure and later join the Ukrainian military taking part in combat actions.
Russia’s special military operation
On February 21, 2022, President Vladimir Putin announced that Moscow was recognizing the sovereignty of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, (the DPR and LPR respectively). Russia signed agreements on friendship, cooperation and mutual assistance with their leaders. Moscow recognized the Donbass republics in accordance with the DPR and LPR constitutions within the boundaries of the Donetsk and Lugansk Regions as of the beginning of 2014.
Russian President Putin announced on February 24, 2022, that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics for assistance, he had decided to carry out a special military operation in Ukraine. The DPR and the LPR launched an operation to liberate their territories under Kiev’s control.
From September 23 to September 27, 2022, the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Lugansk People’s Republic as well as the Kherson Region and the Zaporozhye Region held a referendum where the majority of voters opted to join Russia.
On September 30, 2022, President Putin and the heads of the DPR, the LPR, and the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions signed treaties on their entry to Russia. Later, the State Duma and the Federation Council (the lower and upper houses of Russia’s parliament) approved legislation on ratifying these treaties, as well as federal constitutional laws on the accession of the four regions to Russia.