NEIVA, Colombia — Manuel Barrios joined the battle against Russian forces in Ukraine because a bank threatened to seize his home in Colombia. Luis Alejandro Herrera returned to the front after losing his savings in a failed attempt to enter the United States.
Both Colombians died in a war that their relatives said they cared little about.
“He said he was fighting a war in a country that was not his because of extreme need,” said María Cubillos, Barrios’ wife.
Heavy losses are forcing both Ukraine and Russia to replenish their ranks. For Ukraine, foreign volunteers, mostly Westerners, who arrived last year out of moral convictions or in search of adventure, are being supplemented by fighters from poorer nations who are more like mercenaries.
“I would dare say that no Colombian has gone there to defend democracy,” said Cristian Pérez, a retired Colombian sniper who is considering fighting in Ukraine. “I don’t think they heard of Ukraine before the war.”
The Ukrainian military did not provide estimates on the number of foreign fighters in its ranks, citing operational security. But interviews with four Colombians who have served in Ukraine, as well as a review of audio and text messages sent by fighters there, indicate that hundreds of Colombian volunteers are in Ukraine.
Colombia offers fertile ground for recruitment because decades of fighting Marxist insurgencies and drug cartels have left the country with the largest Army in South America.
Retired soldiers in Colombia receive a monthly pension for life of between 400 and 600 dollars. But that is often not enough to make ends meet, and many find that their combat skills are of little use in civilian life.
“The only thing we know is how to use weapons,” said Andrés, a retired Colombian soldier who was in Ukraine and asked that his last name be withheld for fear of harming his career prospects.
But in Ukraine, Colombian soldiers, who said they received $3,000 a month in Ukrainian currency, found a war different from the one they knew. Hand-to-hand combat in densely covered terrain was replaced by bombing in exposed areas.
“Colombia is child’s play compared to here,” said a Colombian volunteer in a veterans’ chat group. “When a missile explodes for the first time near you, that’s when you see the devil in person.”
The volunteer said that of the 60 Colombians who had joined him, only seven remained. The rest died, were injured or returned to their homes.
Barrios arrived in Ukraine in February after the bank threatened to seize his house weeks after the birth of his third child.
But Barrios was killed in a missile attack after 20 days on the front, too soon to earn even a salary. According to Ukrainian law, the families of servicemen killed in combat are entitled to 411 thousand dollars. But Cubillos said he did not have money for a lawyer or a plane ticket to travel to Ukraine to file the compensation claim. He said the bank continues to threaten to repossess his home.
By: Anatoly Kurmanaev and Isayen Herrera
BBC-NEWS-SRC: http://www.nytsyn.com/subscribed/stories/6975564, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-11-08 18:30:07
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