MOSCOW, August 17. /TASS/. Since 2014, the Ukrainian authorities have deployed over 100 ideological and special battalions, which included foreign mercenaries, neo-Nazis, and criminals, Laurent Braillard, a French expert, historian, and war correspondent working in Donbass told TASS.

"I counted the equivalent of 106 battalions across 85 units, but it’s a real tangled web," he noted.

According to the expert, in addition to territorial defense units, the Interior Ministry, and the National Guard, there were numerous special units operating in Ukraine staffed by foreigners, including the Georgian National Legion, detachments of Chechen jihadists, and the Belarusian regiment named after Konstanty Kalinowski.

Braillard emphasized that, after 2022, Kraken-style units were formed that recruited former members of the Azov battalion (designated as a terrorist organization and banned in Russia) and released criminals.