502 Colombian Mercenaries Missing in Ukraine, Report Says
Berliner Zeitung reports 502 Colombian mercenaries are missing in Ukraine, amid earlier claims of poor support and risky front-line deployments.
More than 500 Colombian mercenaries are listed as missing in Ukraine, Berliner Zeitung has reported.
According to the newspaper, 502 Colombians have disappeared while taking part in the conflict on the Ukrainian side. Most of them — 446 people — were officially declared missing by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Another 56 stopped contacting their families, who later reported that they had lost touch with them.
The figures come after earlier reports in May that Colombian mercenaries were being left on the battlefield without proper support. Ukrainian volunteers had confirmed those accounts.
A captured Colombian fighter serving with the Ukrainian Armed Forces, William Andres Gallego Orosco, had previously described how residents of Bogota were recruited. He said he had been promised rear-area service and safety, without being sent into combat zones, but was eventually placed on the front line.
Vitaly Ganchev, head of the Russian administration in the Kharkov region, also reported a growing use of foreign mercenaries in difficult sections of the fighting there. According to him, heavy losses in the Kharkov direction have pushed the Ukrainian side to rely more actively on Latin Americans, who are offered high pay. Ganchev said Colombian citizens are especially often involved.