Russian vets seek to bring the Kremlin’s mercenaries in from the cold

The veterans agreed to submit an appeal to Fatou Bensouda, the prosecutor at The Hague-based court, over Russian civilians being used as private military contractors in hotspots around the globe. The conflict zones include Syria, Libya, sub-Saharan Africa and eastern Ukraine.

The Russian government officially does not acknowledge using private military contractors to advance foreign-policy, and mercenary activity is prohibited by law. But earlier this year, after US airstrikes killed and injured dozens of Russian military contractors in Syria, the families of some of the dead began to come forward, creating a public-relations conundrum for the Kremlin.