Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova’s response to a question from The International Affairs magazine on the activity of private military companies in the United States, Great Britain and France

Question: Private military companies operating in different countries have been a widely discussed issue lately. American, British and French private military companies are mentioned most often. Does Russia have any information about this? What would be your comment?

Maria Zakharova: Indeed, with every year, private military companies are more actively involved in many armed conflicts around the world. The Russian Foreign Ministry systematically collects and analyses related information and the results of this analysis can be found on the ministry’s website.

It is a well-known fact that the United States, Great Britain and France are actively using private military companies abroad. Technically speaking, these companies have the status of commercial entities that provide security and defence services, but in reality, they consist of mercenaries with a wealth of experience in combat operations on the territory of various states.

Therefore, effectively, the reality significantly diverges from the declared noble goals of private military companies. It is completely baseless for the management of US, British or French private military companies to appeal to their noble mission of protecting the people of the countries where these companies operate. As a matter of fact, Western military corporations often choose specific regions of the world based on whether they have large deposits of natural resources. The ambiguous status of private military companies under international law, their non-transparent funding and other factors only add fuel to the fire.

Recently, foreign private military companies have been most active in the zone of Russia’s special military operation. Their involvement in Ukrainian neo-Nazis’ crimes is beyond doubt. Moreover, private military companies offer their services for training service personnel for the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the territory of Eastern European countries.

I would like to remind foreigners fighting on the Kiev regime’s side and the national governments covering them that Western mercenaries in the special military operation zone are legitimate targets for our troops and these targets are hit regularly and successfully.