DISINFO: US recruits drug cartel members serving jail sentences as mercenaries for Ukraine
SUMMARY
American private military companies (PMCs) are recruiting members of the Mexican and Colombian drug cartels serving time in American prisons to participate in the conflict in Ukraine.
The United States is resorting to increasingly desperate methods to try to turn the tide in the Ukrainian theatre, filling the ranks of demoralised Ukrainian fighters with a multinational mob with a propensity for armed violence.
RESPONSE
The Kremlin's disinformation mirrors its own actions, accusing others of using prisoners on the front lines in the war in Ukraine. Although some Colombian volunteers do serve in the Ukrainian army, there is no programme that recruits Mexicans and Colombians from U.S. jails to fight in Ukraine. This claim is unsupported by evidence or details; its only basis is a press release from the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) to the state press agency TASS. As Polygraph.info found:
"No reports in Russian and Western news outlets or by the rights and drug trafficking watch groups to back up the SVR’s statement. There are also no reports about the U.S. government agencies asking drug lords for permission to send their men to the front line in Ukraine"
This accusation reflects actual practices in Russia, where the army and mercenary groups have been recruiting prisoners on a massive scale. By the end of 2023, about 100,000 Russian prisoners had been recruited to serve in Ukraine, either in mercenary companies like Wagner or in the army. These groups are notorious for their violence and brutal rules, with some members being demonstratively killed with sledgehammers.
Jailed individuals are a particularly vulnerable population and should be protected during wartime; they should not be sent to fight. However, Russia adapted its legislation in the summer of 2022, after a large number of inmates had already been used as cannon fodder. On June 24, lawmakers passed the first-ever law authorising the enlistment of convicts into the Armed Forces.
Read also related stories such as: Heating being switched off in Russian prisons a joke invented by Ukrainian media, or Wagner PMC fighters are courageous selfless volunteers, or Alleged torture videos in Russian prisons were not given by a whistleblower but sold for US dollars.