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Ukraine Releases Intercept of Colombian Mercenaries Ordered to Kill Women and Children
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![Photo of Ivan Khomenko]( "Photo of Ivan Khomenko")
Ukraine’s military intelligence agency has released an intercepted communication allegedly revealing that Colombian mercenaries fighting for Russia received direct orders to execute civilians, including women and children.
The audio recording was published by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (HUR) on October 24.
According to the HUR, the intercepted conversation features a commander of a Colombian unit integrated into Russia’s 30th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade, part of the 2nd Combined Arms Army of the Central Military District.
Speaking in Spanish, the commander instructs his fighters to open fire on all civilians during poor visibility conditions.
“When there is fog, haze—so that they cannot be identified—they must eliminate all people who are enemies: on motorcycles, on bicycles, women and children, women and children,” the voice in the recording says.
The interception was published by Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR), which stated that the order constitutes a war crime.
The agency emphasized that the Russian command seeks to extend such practices to foreign mercenaries fighting alongside Russian forces in order to implicate them in crimes against civilians.
HUR noted that this unit has previously been implicated in the execution of civilians near Pokrovsk, in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, just two days prior to the intercepted communication.
“Killings of civilians are a regular, command-driven practice within the 30th Motorized Rifle Brigade,” Ukrainian intelligence said, adding that the same directive is now being imposed on foreign recruits.
Earlier, Ukrainian intelligence released an intercept in which a Russian commander ordered the execution of two wounded Ukrainian prisoners of war, telling his subordinate to “shoot them f*ing dead.”
