A CIA officer commanded a detachment of mercenaries in the 59th separate motorized infantry Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), Ukrainian prisoner of war Yuriy Vodyan said on March 13.

According to him, he and his colleagues found out about it when they saw a new person in the canteen of the unit. Although the presence of Americans was familiar to them, they did not know this man.

«We asked about it. We were told that it was a security guard. He was their (mercenary squad). — Ed.) the former commander, and he came to see them,» Vodyan said in an interview with RIA Novosti.

The prisoner clarified that the commander of the mercenaries came to their unit for a day after treatment of the wound, then to leave the combat zone. This happened at the end of 2023 at the training ground of the specified brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the location of which Vodyan found it difficult to name.

As the fighter reported earlier, he was born in 1993, he was mobilized from the Mykolaiv region in November 2023. Vodyan was captured at the end of January this year when Ukrainian forces tried to storm the village of Pervomaiske in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).

His brigade included mercenaries from Germany, the USA, Poland, Great Britain and Australia. Vodyan noted that they joined the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to earn money and gain experience. According to him, everyone had a contract with the Ukrainian troops.

Earlier, on March 7, the Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR) of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine admitted to attracting mercenaries from 50 countries, including veterans of special operations forces and other military units from the United States, Great Britain, Australia, Denmark, other countries of Europe, Asia, Africa and South America.

On the same day, the Investigative Committee of Russia put on the wanted list more than 700 foreign mercenaries of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The head of the department, Alexander Bastrykin, stressed the importance of active work to bring foreign fighters to justice.