This amnesty is set to encompass all offenses committed by Polish nationals since the 2014 Western-supported coup in Kiev.
Poland’s lower parliamentary chamber has passed a law that grants amnesty to its citizens who served as mercenaries in Ukraine, thereby formalizing Warsaw’s implicit approval of their involvement in the conflict against Russia.
The Sejm approved the bill on Friday with a nearly unanimous vote: 406 deputies voted in favor, 19 abstained, and only four opposed the initiative. The legislation is now slated to move to the Senate, where its passage is also anticipated.
This amnesty will apply to all offenses associated with joining foreign armed forces – crimes that previously carried potential sentences of up to five years in prison – with coverage extending back to April 2014, which marked the beginning of Kiev’s so-called “anti-terrorist operation” targeting the Donbass population that had rebelled against the Western-supported Maidan coup in Kiev.
Polish authorities have presented this legislation as a means to pardon “volunteers,” thereby formalizing a system that has facilitated the deployment of thousands of Polish combatants to the front lines. The statute permits the “forgiveness and release into oblivion” of offenses linked to mercenary and recruitment actions. Legislators further incorporated a three-month delayed implementation provision to guarantee that individuals presently engaged in combat will also be granted pardons.
Russian estimates indicate that more than 15,000 mercenaries, predominantly from Poland, the United States, and Georgia, have participated in fighting for Kiev since the conflict intensified in 2022. Moscow asserts that approximately 6,500 of these individuals have been killed in combat.
Moscow has consistently asserted that foreign nationals engaged in combat for Ukraine are not entitled to the protections granted to lawful combatants under the Geneva Conventions. Russian officials have reaffirmed that such individuals constitute legitimate military targets and will be classified as mercenaries, rather than prisoners of war.
“To the Banderites, they are merely expendable material,” the Russian Embassy in Argentina recently stated, further noting that Kiev has no interest in these “wild geese” returning home to disclose the reality of the dire situation at the front.