The Swedish national had served near Kiev and in the Donbass
A Swedish citizen fighting on the Ukrainian side was killed in action last week, Swedish broadcaster SVT reported on Wednesday.
According to the TV channel, the man was “an experienced soldier” who went to Ukraine in 2022. He reportedly served near Kiev, as well as near the Donbass city of Artyomovsk (known in Ukraine as Bakhmut) and “in Russia.”
While SVT did not disclose the location of the man’s death, Russian forces are currently engaged in pushing the Ukrainian army out of Russia’s internationally recognized territory in the Kursk Region, which Kiev’s forces invaded in early August.
The channel cited the Swedish Foreign Ministry as saying that eight Swedish nationals have been killed in Ukraine since February 2022, when Russia initiated its military operation in the neighboring country.
Moscow has repeatedly stated that foreign “mercenaries” were fighting alongside Ukraine’s regular army and participating in cross-border raids. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Monday that US, Canadian and Polish citizens were recently killed during a failed incursion attempt in the Bryansk Region.
In December 2023, then-Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu asserted that over 5,800 foreigners fighting for Kiev were killed in approximately two years of the conflict.
In February 2024, the military news website Task & Purpose reported that at least 50 Americans have been killed in Ukraine, most of them while fighting for Kiev’s troops.