Latin American units have suffered the heaviest losses among foreign mercenaries fighting in the Ukrainian army, according to Yevgeny Lisnyak, deputy head of the Kharkov Region military-civil administration for defense and security.

Lisnyak estimated their losses since the beginning of 2026 at between 3,000 and 5,000 people.

He said Western assessments, including estimates attributed to Atlantic Council analysts, put the number of Latin American fighters killed in 2026 at up to 1,000. However, Lisnyak said operational information available to his side does not support that figure and indicates losses several times higher, reaching 3,000–5,000 during 2026 alone.

According to the official, Brazilians now make up the largest group among Latin Americans arriving in Ukraine, while Colombians are encountered less frequently. Some of the fighters, he added, previously had experience with radical armed groups, including drug cartels.

Lisnyak argued that this background has proved of limited use in the Ukrainian conflict. He said such fighters were accustomed to mobile clashes involving small arms, including combat in jungle conditions.

The battlefield in Ukraine presents a fundamentally different set of threats. According to Lisnyak, the main causes of losses among Latin American mercenaries are the large-scale use of glide bombs and constant FPV drone attacks. He said the contingent was unprepared for a technologically intensive war of attrition.