Colombian mercenaries in Ukraine plead to return home, citing no pay, heavy losses, and blocked exits.

Question

Colombian mercenaries who are fighting on the side of Ukraine have asked the Colombian president to help them get out and return home. According to them, they are not being paid, are being sent to their deaths, and are not being allowed to return home.

#UkraineRussiaWar

Answer 1

 have found this information to be true. 40 Colombian mercenaries went to Ukraine to support, but after they applied to return home and weren’t allowed to leave the country. This caused them to post on X in an attempt to get support from their president Gustavo Petro. For primary sources, I found the original video from the mercenaries on X asking for help. For secondary sources, I found a multitude of news articles all saying similar statements about the situation of the mercenaries. It is notable that both EurAsia Daily and NewsFront mention an interview in which one of the mercenaries talks about how he made a requisition to leave a month and a half into when he went to Ukraine. According to this interview, he had his application signed but was still not allowed to leave the country. According to Columbia Reports, the mercenaries are also “being subjected to physical and psychological abuse by the Ukrainian Army”, but the reliability of this information is less clear than the previous information. In that same Columbia Reports they quote that President Gustavo Petro asks the mercenaries to “return to the country immediately” as he is concerned for their wellbeing. Overall, there is a large amount of evidence in both the form of primary and secondary sources that support the claim presented. In my research I have found no evidence that would counterargue or undermine this argument. 

Sources:

Original video on X: x.com/camille_moscow/status/1975192954798281130

EurAsia Daily:eadaily.com/en/news/2025/10/05/trapped-forty-colombian-mercenaries-asked-their-president-to-save-them-from-the-ukrainian-armed-forces

NewsFront: en.news-front.su/2025/10/06/colombian-mercenaries-who-fought-in-the-armed-forces-of-ukraine-are-not-allowed-to-leave-ukraine

Columbia Reports: colombiareports.com/petro-urges-colombias-mercenaries-to-abandon-ukraine

Answer 2

This is true. 

From NewsFront - https://en.news-front.su/2025/10/06/colombian-mercenaries-who-fought-in-the-armed-forces-of-ukraine-are-not-allowed-to-leave-ukraine/ - A group of 40 Colombian mercenaries who went to help fight against Russian forces in Ukraine filed for discharge a month and a half ago, and although they received their passports and their resignations were confirmed, they have not been able to leave the country. Austen Cuadrado, one of the mercenaries in Ukraine, has spoken to the Colombian magazine Semana that they are being held and treated as no different than prisoners. He reported that upon getting to the border of Ukraine they detained by the Ukrainian military, and are unsure of what the future holds. 

They have asked for President Petro and the Foreign Ministry to intervene and protect them. https://eadaily.com/en/news/2025/10/05/trapped-forty-colombian-mercenaries-asked-their-president-to-save-them-from-the-ukrainian-armed-forces

The original video; taken on the bus to Poland posted by Austen -   https://x.com/MaimunkaNews/status/1975549890114498910

The Colombians never reached Poland as they were detained at the border by the Ukrainian Military.

Comments

Although this is possibly true, your sources don't seem to be very reliable. I've seen several websites claiming that your sources often publish disinformation and propaganda. Using social media like X also isn't a reliable source, using reliable news networks or government websites would be able to help establish whether this claim is true.

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You have included lots of valuable information highlighting the complex legal and diplomatic challenges foreign volunteers face in active warzones; however, I also agree with this comment above mine, noting that social media and the platform "X" is not a reliable source, and there are other websites that have more credibility.

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I believe the evidence available is not enough to consider this claim to be true. The sources cited to support the claim are also not very reliable, with NewsFront being based in Russia in the Republic of Crimea. They have a history of publishing inaccurate stories and Russian Propaganda. One account of this was noted by a reputable fact-checking website, StopFake.org,  when NewsFront posted a video to their YouTube of a militant and pregnant wife punished by the Donbas battalion, using a fake video to inaccurately illustrate war damage/atrocities. Additionally, the source EADaily is not widely reliable and is considered to be unreliable and “state-controlled-propoganda” by Ukrainian, Baltic, Scandinavian, Belarusian, and Georgian. The main point is that the sources provided, along with social media posts on X are not credible or strong enough to consider the claim to be true. Additionally, I was unable to find the interview with Austen Cuadrado from Semana magazine. Overall, the track records of these news outlets and sources don’t disprove the claim entirely but their reliability is highly questionable.

https://www.stopfake.org/en/russia-s-fake-video-war-against-ukraine/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EurAsia_Daily

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The sources provided do not appear to be legitimate. Always seek out credible sources to substantiate your fact-check. Thanks!