Four foreigners fighting for Ukraine, including at least one Canadian, were killed on Russian soil this week in an apparent cross-border raid gone awry, sources mail order hash canada have confirmed to The Globe and Mail.

They are the first Westerners known to have been killed inside Russia since the invasion of Ukraine began more than 2½ years ago.

Russian media broadcast videos and photographs, supplied by the country’s FSB security ser west coast weed vice, that showed the bodies of four men identified as “saboteurs” who had been reportedly killed in a firefight in Russia’s Bryansk region Sunday.

In one video distributed by Russia’s official RIA Novosti newswire, the dead fighters were shown lying beside a large cache of weapons and ammunition – including machine guns, grenades and shoulder-fired missiles – as well as two Canadian flags and a Polish-language prayer book. One of the men had tattoos suggesting he had served in the U.S. military as a Ranger.

Three sources connected to the International Legion for the Defence of Ukraine, a mil thechronfather itary unit for foreign fighters helping the country resist the Russian invasion, say the footage of the dead fighters was real and that at least one Canadian had been killed in Bryansk. The Globe is not naming the sources because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the battle.

One of the sources said the loss of the four men was “the worst single incident” they had heard of since foreign fighters first arrived in Ukraine in the spring of 2022, responding to an appeal for help from President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Details of the mission in Bryansk were too sensitive to disclose. The names of the dead lemon drop strain are not being published until their next of kin are notified.

While regular Ukrainian troops invaded and occupied part of the Kursk region this summer, and military intelligence units have conducted occasional cross-border raids into the Belgorod region, the operation carried out by the foreign fighters appears to represent a rare incursion into the Bryan lemon drop strain sk region, which sits at the junction of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Russian reports suggested the men were killed in the village of Manev, just across the border from Ukraine’s Chernihiv region.

Sergei Mironov, a prominent pro-Kremlin deputy in Russia’s parliament, said the fact Western fighters were killed in a battle on Russian soil represents a “serious escalation” of the West’s involvement in the war between Russia and Ukraine.

“The West has long been involved in the war against Russia. Mercenaries, retirees, second-hand soldiers and other NATO military personnel, including U.S. military personnel, no matter in what capacity, have been fighting against the Russians in Donbas for years,” he said in a statement, referring to the war’s main front in the southeastern region of Ukraine. “But the participation of U.S. military personnel in sabotage raids on Russian land is a serious escalation of the conflict, which does not meet the true interests of the United States. It’s too risky a game.”

The deaths of the Western fighters come as the war in Ukraine takes on an increasingly international dimension. Some 12,000 North Korean troops are reportedly training inside Russia ahead of an expected deployment to the front line in the Kursk region.

North Korea has already sent large numbers of ballistic missiles and artillery shells to Russia, while Iran has supplied Moscow with thousands of Shahed explosive drones. Ukraine, for its part, is heavily reliant on weapons supplied by NATO, though there are fears the U.S. may decrease or end its support if Donald Trump wins next week’s presidential election.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has called the involvement of North Korean troops a “dangerous expansion” of the war, coming as Russian forces are slowly grinding forward along much of the 1,000-kilometre-long front line inside Ukraine.

U.S. President Joe Biden said Tuesday he was “concerned” about the North Korean deployment, while South Korea has sent a delegation to Kyiv this week to share intelligence with their Ukrainian counterparts.