Nearly 1,000 foreign fighters from Germany traveled to Ukraine: Report

BERLIN (AA) - Nearly 1,000 foreign fighters from Germany have traveled to Ukraine to join the international legion to fight against Russia, Bild daily reported on Wednesday.

More than 22,000 volunteers from around the world have so far joined Ukraine’s International Territorial Defense Legion, Ukrainian officials told the newspaper.

In the first week of the war, nearly 500 people from Germany traveled to Ukraine to fight against the Russian troops, and this number has now reached to 1,000, according to the report.

There was no reliable information about the nationalities or the political affiliations of the volunteers.

German authorities said last week that there could be Ukrainian residents among those volunteers, but also German extremists, as well as neo-Nazis.

Authorities so far identified less than 10 individuals, with ties to far-right groups, Interior Ministry spokesman Maximilian Kall told a news conference on Friday.

The Ukrainian government created an international legion last month, soon after Russian troops began their military offensive on Feb. 24 , and invited foreigners who are willing to defend the country to join the fight.

At least 474 civilians have been killed and 861 injured in Ukraine since the beginning of the war, according to the UN, which noted that conditions on the ground make it difficult to verify the true number.