Two citizens from Bosnia and Herzegovina are fighting in Ukraine and they are on the opposite sides, the Ministry of Security announced on Monday, thus denying the allegations by the Russian Ministry of Defence that 51 "mercenaries from BiH" have been killed in the war in Ukraine.

“Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Ministry of Security and various security agencies have information about two BiH citizens who have gone to the battlefield in Ukraine, one on the side of Ukraine and the other on Russia’s side,” the ministry said in a statement on social media.

“That means that media reports referring to the Russian sources about BiH citizens killed on the battlefield in Ukraine is entirely untrue,” the BiH Ministry added.

Two days ago, the Russian Ministry of Defence published a list of foreign fighters in Ukraine. The data alleges that “51 mercenaries from BiH” were killed, that 167 Bosnia and Herzegovina citizens have arrived in Ukraine since the beginning of the war, and that in the meantime, 46 of them have left the country, while another 70 have remained.

Going to and engaging on foreign battlefields is qualified as a crime related to terrorism in BiH.

Amendments to the country’s criminal law were introduced after hundreds of people joined the Islamic State terrorist organization.