GERMANS ON THE BATTLE LINE ⟩ At Least Eight German Volunteer Fighters Reported to Have Fallen in Ukraine's War of Independence Since February 2022

Although Berlin has been vocally criticized for its lack of military support to Ukraine since February 2022, statistics from the Ukrainian Facebook site "Меморіал - International Volunteers for Ukraine" reveal that eight German nationals have fallen in Ukraine while fighting against Russian troops. Notably, none of the fallen have Ukrainian-like names, and one of the eight was a woman.

The current losses of German volunteer fighters are comparable to Germany’s casualties in the Afghanistan war. According to the Bundeswehr, 59 German military personnel died in Afghanistan between 2002 and 2019.

In the first two and a half years of Germany’s deployment in Afghanistan, German forces suffered 16 combat deaths, including one major helicopter accident that killed seven soldiers.

Altogether, at least 46 volunteer fighters from Baltic Sea states have been killed in combat in Ukraine since February 2022. The commemoration site "Меморіал" includes remembrance posts for 15 Polish soldiers, 3 Danes, 7 Swedes (with the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently confirming the death of eight Swedish citizens in Ukraine), 1 Norwegian, 2 Finns (with Finnish public broadcasting reporting the deaths of 5 Finns), 2 Estonians (though Estonian media reports 3 Estonian volunteers have died in Ukraine), 2 Lithuanians, and 1 Latvian volunteer.