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The Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has officially confirmed the deaths of eight Swedish citizens in Ukraine since February 2022, marking Sweden as the Nordic state with the highest known number of casualties in the Ukraine's ongoing War of Independence.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs can confirm that eight Swedish citizens have died in Ukraine since 24 February 2022. Their relatives have been noted in all of the cases," the Swedish Ministry of Defense Press Office responded to The Baltic Sentinel on August 22. Press Office stated also that due to consular confidentiality they are unable to provide any further information about the causes of their death.

There is limited official information available regarding the casualties of volunteer fighters from Baltic Sea nations involved in Ukraine's ongoing war. Only two countries, Lithuania and Sweden, have provided official figures on how many of their citizens have died in Ukraine. The Lithuanian Ministry of Defense reported the death of one Lithuanian volunteer fighter in Ukraine.

Kristian Vakkuri, spokesperson for the Finnish Ministry of Defense, stated that "the Finnish MoD does not have a mechanism to track casualties or fatalities among volunteers."

Finnish national broadcaster YLE reported on August 18 that a fifth Finnish volunteer fighter, former politician Ville Mykkanen (26), who joined Ukraine's army in the fall of 2023, was killed in action in Luhansk Oblast.

Media reports have also mentioned casualties among other nationals, including at least one Norwegian and one Danish volunteer.

Members of the Ukrainian volunteer paramedic organization Hospitallers carry a coffin with the body of one of the organization's members, a Swedish citizen nicknamed Niko, 20, who was killed near Bakhmut amid Russia's attack on Ukraine.
Members of the Ukrainian volunteer paramedic organization Hospitallers carry a coffin with the body of one of the organization's members, a Swedish citizen nicknamed Niko, 20, who was killed near Bakhmut amid Russia's attack on Ukraine. Photo: GLEB GARANICH/REUTERS

The German Federal Ministry of Defense clarified that the responsibility for tracking such cases does not lie with their ministry. However, they referenced a public record from a Bundestag hearing on September 16, 2022, where the death of one German citizen fighting in Ukraine was acknowledged.

Since February 2022, Estonia has lost three volunteer fighters in Ukraine.

Admitting the presence of volunteer fighters in Ukraine has been a sensitive issue for Western governments, but the silence is beginning to break. Sweden and Lithuania have notably taken steps in this direction. Lithuania's new Defense Chief, Brigadier General Raimundas Vaikšnoras, has become the first NATO Chief of Defense to openly acknowledge maintaining contacts with volunteers in Ukraine and expressing a keen interest in learning from their experiences.

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