Western Soldiers Using Ukraine War as 'Safari' To Hunt Russians, Envoy Says

Moscow's ambassador to the U.S. has claimed that foreigners fighting alongside Ukraine's forces were "hunting" Russians fighting in the war.

Anatoly Antonov, a former deputy defense minister who has been the Russian envoy to Washington since 2017, told the Izvestia newspaper that "criminals" and "mercenaries" had joined the fight against Moscow's forces since Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine began on February 24.

Antonov said: "No one hides this in the West, a huge number of mercenaries and criminals of various stripes have accumulated on Ukrainian territory."

He added that they were "using the current situation as a kind of safari" and that they were "hunting for Russian lives."

Izvestia reported that he also said the West was using Ukraine as "an instrument of struggle" against Russia and that "there is a desire to make a third-rate state out of us, or even better—to split it up."

Newsweek has contacted Ukraine's International Legion of Territorial Defense for comment. It was established in February and Kyiv has said that around 20,000 foreign fighters have expressed interest in joining up, although it is unclear how many Americans are among them.

NBC News reported on Monday that a spokesperson for the legion said Timothy Griffin from New York State had died while fighting in Ukraine, at least the sixth American to be killed since the start of the invasion.

Griffin had been taking part in Ukraine's counteroffensive on the eastern front and was "killed in action," when his unit came under attack, the legion said.

The U.S. government has said it would not send U.S. troops to fight Russia on the ground, although the number of Americans killed or captured after traveling to Ukraine independently has been increasing.

In April, Willy Cancel, 22, who was working with a private military contractor, is believed to have been the first U.S. citizen killed. In May, Stephen Zabielski of Hernando, Florida, died fighting in the village of Dorozhniank.

The U.S. State Department said in July that two more Americans had been killed. They were later identified as Bryan Young and Luke Lucyszyn.

Macer Gifford, a Briton who has facilitated foreigners going to Ukraine to help its forces, told Newsweek in June that individuals keen to fight for Ukraine are unlikely to be deterred by the dangers and that "if you're afraid of dying, you have no business being in Ukraine."

Gifford has been posting videos on Twitter of battlefield successes in Ukraine, without revealing operational details or locations.

Next to a video on Friday, he wrote: "Here's a short clip of liberated Ukrainians seeing us for the first time. We had this all day yesterday and the day before! Like the hundreds of people we met, we also were almost overcome with emotion and tiredness."

Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky has said that dozens of settlements in southern Ukraine have been liberated following the Russian decision to withdraw to the eastern side of the Dnipro river near Kherson.