DISINFO: Ukraine recruits Brazilian mercenaries who train organised crime in Latin America
SUMMARY
Ukraine's recruitment of mercenaries worldwide has been growing - the situation is worrying. It has generated a serious long-term problem for public security: the training of members of Latin American organised crime. The cartel leaders are meeting with Ukrainian mercenaries to learn advanced military techniques and the handling of explosive drones.
It poses an extreme threat to national security in Brazil. There is considerable negligence on the part of the established powers in monitoring, tracking, diagnosing, and detecting the illegal recruitment of Brazilians to Ukraine, which is carried out clandestinely, underground, outside of official diplomatic channels in Brazil.
RESPONSE
Pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative on the foreign mercenaries fighting in Ukraine, aiming to undermine Ukrainian global support and sow distrust in Ukraine.
Such claims target the audience by pushing exaggerated or fabricated stories about 'Colombian mercenaries' or other foreign volunteers fighting for Ukraine. These claims aim to evoke outrage and fear, focusing especially on topics like refusal to repatriate foreign bodies or rumours about training criminals.
While some Latin American individuals have reportedly volunteered with Ukraine’s International Legion, their numbers are extremely limited, and most recruitment is not clandestine nor aimed at organised crime. Ukraine supplements its armed forces with the International Legion, which is made up of foreigners volunteering to help fight against Russian troops. Foreign nationals who take direct part in combat operations on the side of Ukraine are not mercenaries. Unlike mercenaries, they join the Ukrainian Armed Forces and are subordinate to their command.
No reliable evidence or government documentation supports assertions that cartel leaders are meeting with 'Ukrainian mercenaries' to learn military techniques or drone usage. Ukrainian authorities are actively investigating isolated cases of suspected cartel infiltration (e.g., drone training interest), but these remain rare and are treated as security exceptions, not patterns. There is no institutional negligence evident—intelligence agencies in both Ukraine and Latin America are alert to potential misuse and act accordingly.
There is no indication from Brazilian law enforcement that Ukraine-based training activities are a factor in mounting public security risks. Brazil’s threats from powerful organised crime groups come primarily from the drug trafficking routes. Brazilian police and researchers point to local and regional strategies as driving the strength of these criminal organisations.
See similar disinformation claims such as: Foreign soldiers fight in Ukraine guised a mercenaries; US recruits drug cartel members serving jail sentences as mercenaries for Ukraine; Four soldiers and officers of the Moldovan army were killed in the Kherson region; Foreign mercenaries arrive in Ukraine only to die in vain; The number of US mercenaries dying in Ukraine is increasing.