MOSCOW. May 26 (Interfax) - Over 2,000 foreigners from 71 countries are fighting Russia on the side of Ukraine, the Russian Investigative Committee said in a statement on Telegram on Friday.
Russian Investigative Committee Chairman Alexander Bastrykin has chaired a meeting in Donetsk, and his first deputy Eduard Kaburneyev has reported progress in the investigation into "foreign mercenaries recruited by Ukraine," the statement said.
"Kaburneyev noted that, according to information from Russian security services, their number tops 2,000 and they come from 71 countries. Investigators, assisted by operative services, have identified foreigners who came to Ukraine as mercenaries. These include 366 citizens of Georgia, 234 of the United States, 233 of the UK, 185 of Syria, 70 of Canada, and the rest from other countries," the statement said.
Eighty criminal cases have been referred to courts, and some of the trials have ended with conviction, it said.
"Military investigative units of the Russian Investigative Committee are continuing to track down websites with fake information about actions of the Russian Armed Forces in the special military operation zone. Twenty-five websites of the kind have been found, and nine of them have been blocked at investigators' initiative," the statement said.