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Two Colombian soldiers who had fought for Ukraine are now under arrest in Moscow. They wound up there after stopping over in Venezuela, which apparently extradited them.
By Anatoly KurmanaevSimón Posada and Oleg Matsnev
Anatoly Kurmanaev and Oleg Matsnev reported from Berlin, and Simón Posada reported from Bogotá, Colombia.
Aug. 30, 2024Updated 2:27 p.m. ET
Venezuela appears to have sent two foreign members of Ukraine’s military this week to face trial in Moscow, a significant escalation of Kremlin’s campaign to punish its enemies abroad.
The arrest of Colombian fighters in Moscow followed their arrival and subsequent disappearance last month in Venezuela, a neighbor of Colombia and a Russia ally.
Their apparent extradition could damage relations between the governments of Venezuela and Colombia, which share close economic and historical ties, experts said, underlining how the war in Ukraine is creating geopolitical ripples far from the battlefield.
Russian state media on Friday published a video of the country’s secret police interrogating the two Colombians, José Medina and Alejandro Ante, about their combat service in Ukraine, where they fought in the ranks of Ukrainian Armed Forces for eight to 10 months.
A Moscow court on Thursday separately ordered Mr. Medina and Mr. Ante taken into custody on accusations of being mercenaries, a crime under Russian and international law.
Relatives of the two Colombian servicemen confirmed to The New York Times that the men seen in the video being hauled through a corridor by security officers and later interrogated were Mr. Medina and Mr. Ante.
