The Portuguese government reports that there are seven citizens of the country who contacted the services of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, informing them of their movement to Ukraine as “volunteers”. And he adds that “there are no records of deaths.” This is the reaction of the office of Joao Gomes Cravinho to information released this Friday by the Russian Ministry of Defense that Putin’s troops shot down “19 mercenariesPortuguese since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.
The Portuguese MNE emphasizes that, given the situation in that country, “any travel to Ukraine should be avoided.” Citizens who, for whatever reason, must do so “should report the trip to the consular emergency department.”
Vladimir Putin’s government said that in addition to the 19 deaths recorded since the start of the invasion, 103 Portuguese soldiers arrived, 16 of whom have already returned. 68 soldiers from Portugal will act.
Among European countries, Poland “is the undisputed leader in terms of the number of mercenaries both upon arrival and death,” the Russian Defense Ministry said.
Since the beginning of the war, “1831 Poles have arrived in Ukraine, of which 378 have already been killed and 272 have returned home.” Followed by Romania “with 504 arrivals, 102 deaths and 98 departures”. The UK is in third place with “422 arrivals, 101 deaths, 95 departures”.
Canada leads the North American continent with 601 arrivals, 162 deaths, 169 departures. In second place is the United States: 530 arrivals, 214 deaths, 227 departures.
From the Middle East and Asia, the largest number of “355 mercenaries” arrived from Georgia, of which 120 died and 90 left Ukraine. In addition, there are 200 fighters from US-controlled areas of Syria. To date, 80 have been “eliminated”, and 66 have left Ukraine.
In total, Moscow’s lists include “mercenaries and gunsmiths from 64 countries.”
Moscow counts and guarantees that since the beginning of the so-called “special operation” 6956 foreigners have arrived in Ukraine, 1956 have been killed and 1779 have already returned.
Number of deaths for “internal propaganda”
Pavlo Sadokha, the leader of the main association of Ukrainians in Portugal, says that he has no such data on the death of the Portuguese in battles. But he believes that the figures now presented by the Russian Ministry of Defense are nothing more than propaganda and counterinformation aimed at internal public opinion.
“They tell the Russian people that foreigners are at war with Russia and that they are the victims of these attacks. And not that the Russians are attacking Ukraine.”
However, about a hundred Portuguese, whom Moscow guarantees the replenishment of the troops of Vladimir Zelensky, he already has a different opinion. “About the same number of Portuguese or Ukrainians with dual citizenship who contacted us to request information on how to join our forces,” Pavel Sadokha adds.
The association claims to have referred all these cases to the Ukrainian embassy in Lisbon.
