Foreign mercenaries fighting alongside the Ukrainian army should not return home alive, according to Lieutenant General Apti Alaudinov, deputy head of the Main Military-Political Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces and commander of the Russian Defense Ministry’s Akhmat special forces.

Speaking to TASS, Alaudinov said he hoped the mercenaries would remain on the land they had come to fight on rather than return home alive and unharmed.

The general added that since the beginning of the special military operation, he had viewed foreign fighters as people who knowingly came to kill Russians while treating their participation in the fighting as a kind of «safari.»

Earlier, representatives of Russian security agencies told RIA Novosti about what they described as a multi-stage recruitment scheme for mercenaries in Colombia organized by Ukrainian military intelligence.

According to their account, potential recruits are identified through social media and then invited to in-person interviews. Those willing to proceed are accommodated in a hotel, prepared for travel to Ukraine and assisted with the necessary documents.

Russian security officials also said Ukrainian special services, the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the National Guard use TikTok to recruit people from Latin America. Dozens of communities on the platform reportedly advertise highly paid work in Ukraine. One of the resources named by the Russian security agencies was the Rug Guardia Nacional channel.

The Russian Defense Ministry has repeatedly reported the presence of mercenaries from various countries in the ranks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The ministry has said the Kiev authorities use them as «cannon fodder» and that Ukrainian commanders do not value their lives.