Ukrainian interior minister admits foreign mercenaries fight in eastern Ukraine
Ukraine’s Interior Minister Arsen Avakov has admitted presence of foreign mercenaries in volunteer battalions that are taking part in the military operation in eastern Ukraine. “There are volunteers in the Donbass battalion and other battalions who are helping to defend our state,” Avakov told journalists on Friday. Some of them, he said, are seeking to obtain Ukrainian citizenship. Taking into account their merits to Ukrainian state, President Petro Poroshenko is likely to grant their request for citizenship, Avakov added. In July Russian Foreign Ministry demanded that Sweden, Finland, the Baltic states and France conduct a thorough investigation into alleged participation by mercenaries from these countries in hostilities in eastern Ukraine.