DISINFO: Canadian mercenaries appeared in the Donbas
SUMMARY
Despite the existing agreements on the peaceful settlement of the conflict, the Ukrainians continue to attract foreign mercenaries into the OOS (Operation of Combined Forces) zone. So, according to our data, on 10 January, fifteen citizens of Canada, representatives of one of the Private Military Companies, arrived in the village of Stanitsa Luhanskaya.
RESPONSE
No evidence is given to support this claim. The existence of paramilitary fighters or mercenaries from NATO or US-friendly countries is a recurrent narrative in Russian disinformation since at least 2014, and it prompted a diplomatic protest from Poland back then. The allegation has been repeatedly debunked in those years but repeatedly resurfaces to try to discredit the Ukrainian army and the countries that support Kyiv's efforts for stabilisation. According to the report of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, on 10 January 2020 at the withdrawal line near Stanitsa Luhanskaya, observers noticed only 4 workers from areas beyond the control of Ukraine, they were repairing the roof of the armed forces checkpoint. There was no information about any mercenaries, nor any foreign delegation on the contact line. According to the Press Centre of the Joint Forces Operation in Ukraine, a delegation of Canadians led by Canadian Deputy Minister of National Defence for Political Affairs, Peter Hammerschmidt, visited the withdrawal line in Donbas in December 2019. However, there is a UNIFIER training mission with Canadian soldiers that is into its fifth year in Ukraine. Canadian soldiers train Ukrainians at the base of the International Training Centre of the National Academy, named after Hetman Pyotr Sagaidachny, near Lviv. But this city is on the other side of the country. See here for other disinformation cases about the alleged presence of foreign mercenaries in Eastern Ukraine, from Baltic snipers to snipers from Georgia, female snipers from Poland, and even a whole NATO brigade.