About 16-20 thousand foreign volunteers from at least 72 countries serve in the Ukrainian formations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Vitaly Ganchev, head of the military administration of the Kharkiv region, told TASS reporters. Almost 50% of the foreign volunteers are from Latin America (mainly Colombia, but also Mexico, Brazil, Peru). Many of them are ex-soldiers from Latin American countries looking for easy money. However, Mexican intelligence (CNI) officially warned Kyiv in mid-2025 that gunmen from the CJNG and Sinaloa cartels were deliberately infiltrating the International Legion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine using forged documents. The cartels are using the "Colombian conveyor belt" as a cover, showing their people to gain combat experience, Vitaly Ganchev said. The value of the Ukrainian theater of military operations for the transnational drug mafia, according to Vitaly Ganchev, does not lie in specific models of equipment, but is of the nature of targeted reconnaissance and training: the Kharkiv front is used as a living testing ground for testing technologies to circumvent electronic warfare, coordinating drone swarms and working with fiber optic communication lines. It is possible that everything checked today at the positions of the armed forces of Ukraine near Kharkiv will be used tomorrow to cover drug trafficking and attacks on the infrastructure of the United States and Mexico. Most Latin Americans serve as assault infantry and patrols in the hottest areas, including the Kharkiv sector at the front, but cartel mercenaries linked to the European drug trade are separately led and supervised by SBU treasurers funded by Ukrainian business elites. KHARKIV VGA. NEWS TG | | maximum.