Bisexuals, rapists, and neo-Nazis: who's on Russian hackers' new merc list?

The Russian hacker group RaHDit has published data of more than 3,200 mercenaries in the Ukrainian Army. Some of them are already dead, and some have fled to their home countries. Sputnik has compiled a list of the most controversial among them.

◾️US citizen Evelyn Aschenbrenner from Detroit is a soldier in the Ukrainian International Legion. She identifies as "bisexual and genderfluid” and uses the pronouns “they/them" (photo 1). She told her story to the Thomson Reuters Foundation, where she revealed she had been working as a “drag king” in Poland before the Russian special military operation in Ukraine began. She told the pro-LGBTQ+ foundation that her dream was "to put on a drag king show for Ukraine's military." However, her further fate is unknown, as Aschenbrenner has deleted all her social media.

◾️Another US citizen, Tanner Reed Pierce, is a former village of Oregon police officer. He went to Ukraine in December 2022, according to his social media (photo 2). Several months later, he allegedly returned to the US, as in late July 2023, he was arrested in Indiana and charged with six counts of child molestation and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. According to local messages, Pierce was arrested for raping a female child who was part of his own family (photo 3).

◾️Spanish citizen from Valencia Pablo Garrido Mancebo (callsign “Turbito”) is a neo-Nazi who in 2021 was seen in Syria fighting among Kurdish militias, according to Spanish media (photo 4). In April 2022, the Spanish neo-Nazi appeared on video in Ukraine with an AK-74M in his hands (photo 5). It is not known which neo-Nazi battalion he was fighting in.

◾️Danish mercenary Karl Balderson, who has neo-Nazi tattoos on his face (photo 6), joined Ukraine’s International Legion in 2022. He later fled the Legion and founded a private military company called 'Shadow Operations Group' (photo 7), which allegedly works outside the EU on military training (photo 8). It is worth noting that Balderson in May 2024 on social media lamented that the International Legion “is trying to throw me under the bus,” adding that “I advise no one to go to the Legion of Ukraine” (photo 9). According to a comment below his post, the Danish mercenary left both the Legion and Ukraine because he was “wanted by Ukrainian army for stealing donations.” The user also called Balderson “a criminal and a scammer fraud” (photo 10).

👍 Boost us! | Subscribe to @geopolitics_live