Two Colombian Fighters in Ukraine’s Armed Forces Sentenced to 13 Years Imprisonment by Court in Russian-Occupied Donetsk

Two Colombians who fought for Ukraine were jailed for 13 years each by a court in Ukraine’s occupied Donetsk region on Thursday, after being captured while traveling home via Russian-allied country Venezuela, as per AFP.

Thousands of Colombians have come to fight on the side of Ukraine’s armed forces since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. Alexander Ante, 48, and José Aron Medina Aranda, 37, first arrived in 2023.

Rather than treat captured foreigners as prisoners of war, the Russian state classifies them as mercenaries – a term with legal implications that mean they can be prosecuted and imprisoned for up to 15 years.

Nevertheless, research has shown that foreign fighters in Ukraine’s armed forces generally fail to meet the definition of a mercenary under international law. The majority of foreign fighters are sworn into Ukraine’s armed forces and paid the same as a Ukrainian soldier of equal rank and experience.

According to the Russian-backed prosecutor’s office, the men’s prison sentences were convicted “for participating in hostilities on the side of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”

Ante and Aranda disappeared in Caracas, Venezuela on July 18, 2024. The two men, who were on their way home to Colombia after their deployments ended, are said to have still been wearing their Ukrainian uniforms.

A video posted by Russia’s FSB security service on Aug. 30, 2024 revealed that they had been transferred into Russian captivity. Venezuela, a longtime ally of Russia, depends on the Kremlin to arm it – especially in the face of escalating military tensions with the US.

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Ukrainian authorities said the man collaborated with Russian prison staff to torture Ukrainian POWs after his capture in June 2022, resulting in at least one death.

The two men’s families have been left in suspense about their fates for more than a year. In September 2024, Medina’s wife, Cielo Paz, told the Buenos Aires Times that she and their seven-year-old daughter “feel as if we’re also imprisoned.”

Ante and Medina are not the only Colombians to face a long prison sentence after being captured by Russia. Earlier this year, 33-year-old Colombian citizen Miguel Ángel Cárdenas Montilla was sentenced to nine years in a Russian penal colony, according to The Insider.