Ukraine’s military is depleted by two years of large-scale conflict. As it battles Russia’s war machine, Ukraine welcomes hardened Colombian fighters from one of the world’s oldest conflicts.
A room in a Kyiv hospital is reserved for them. Around ten soldiers are being treated there, all of them are Colombians. Professional soldiers who came to strengthen the ranks of Ukraine’s foreign volunteers in the war against Russia.
Among them was a 32-year-old man from the city of Medellín trying to save a colleague injured during three days of heavy fighting with Russian forces. Russian drones attacked the group and shrapnel from a grenade dropped by one of them pierced its jaw.
“We stood up and decided to flee our position to save our lives (…) There was nowhere to hide“, explains the one who calls himself “Checho”.”I thought I was dying “. The fighters insisted on being identified by their military names, because they fear for their safety and that of their families.
Colombia’s military has been battling drug trafficking cartels and rebel groups for decades, making its soldiers among the most experienced in the world.
The hope of seeing your salary multiplied by four or more
With 250,000 soldiers, Colombia has the second largest army in Latin America, after that of Brazil. More than 10,000 people retire each year. And hundreds are going to fight in Ukraine, where many earn four times as much as experienced NCOs in Colombia, or more.
“Colombia has a large army with highly trained personnel, but salaries are not great when compared to other armies” says Andrés Macías of the Externado de Bogotá University, who studies Colombian work for military contractors around the world.
In early 2022, Ukrainian authorities said 20,000 people from 52 countries were in Ukraine. Now, in accordance with the secrecy surrounding military personnel, authorities will not say how many there are on the battlefield, but they say the profile of the fighters has changed.
The first waves of volunteers came mostly from post-Soviet or English-speaking countries. Speaking Russian or English allowed them to integrate more easily into the Ukrainian army, Shahuri said. Over the past year, the military has developed an infrastructure of recruiters,Spanish-speaking instructors and junior operational officershe added.
Hector Bernal, a retired combat medic who runs a tactical medicine center outside Bogotá, says that in the past eight months he has trained more than 20 Colombians who later fought in Ukraine.
“They are like Latin American migrants who go to the United States in search of a better future“, Bernal said. “These are not volunteers who want to defend the flag of another country. They are simply motivated by economic need.“
In Colombia, news of recruitment into the Ukrainian army spreads mainly through social networks. Some of the volunteers already fighting in Ukraine share the recruitment stages on platforms such as TikTok or WhatsApp.
Families without news
But when a problem arises, it can be difficult for loved ones to get information about their loved ones. Diego Espitia lost contact with his cousin Oscar Triana after Triana joined the Ukrainian army in August 2023. Six weeks later, the retired soldier from Bogotá stopped posting information on social media.
Without a Ukrainian embassy in Bogotá, Triana’s family requested information from the Ukrainian embassy in Peru and the Colombian consulate in Poland – the last country Triana passed through before heading to Ukraine. Neither responded.
“We want the authorities of both countries to give us information about what happened, to respond to our emails. This is what we demand now“, Espitia says.
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