Russian-Occupied Donetsk Court Jails Two Colombian Fighters for 13 Years

# Russian-Occupied Donetsk Court Jails Two Colombian Fighters for 13 Years

*Event date: 2025-11-06*

A court in Russian-occupied Donetsk has sentenced two Colombian men to 13 years in prison after finding that they fought with Ukraine’s armed forces and were later transferred into Russian custody from Venezuela, according to the report in the packet.

The case centers on Alexander Ante and José Aron Medina Aranda. The AFP report carried by Kyiv Post says the men disappeared while returning home via Russian-allied Venezuela before being taken to the occupied territories and tried as mercenaries. That sequence is the core of the story available in the evidence packet, and it is the basis for the conviction announced by the court in Donetsk.

The sentence adds another example of how Russia and Russia-backed authorities in occupied areas are handling foreign nationals accused of taking part in the war on Ukraine’s side. The packet does not provide details on the court proceedings themselves, nor does it include a defense response, but it does establish the names of the two men, the length of the sentence, and the account that they were detained while traveling home.

The Russian-backed authorities’ use of a mercenary label is significant because it frames the case as one involving outside fighters rather than ordinary combatants. That distinction matters politically and legally, especially in a war where both sides have accused the other of mistreating prisoners, using foreign volunteers for propaganda, and stretching the meaning of combatant status.

What is clear from the evidence is that the sentence was handed down in Russian-occupied Donetsk and that the men were accused of fighting for Ukraine before being moved into Russian custody through Venezuela. The packet does not say when they were detained, how they ended up in Venezuela, or whether either man has acknowledged the allegations. It also does not include any independent court document or statement from Colombian authorities.

Even with those gaps, the outcome is unmistakable: two Colombians are now serving long prison terms in an occupied part of eastern Ukraine after a case that began with their disappearance on the way home. The sentencing fits into a wider pattern of wartime prosecutions in which occupation authorities use criminal courts to reinforce political control and present battlefield participation as an offense punishable by lengthy imprisonment.

The ruling is likely to draw attention in Colombia and among human-rights groups that monitor foreign detainees in the conflict. But on the basis of the supplied evidence, the verified facts end with the conviction, the sentence, and the route the men reportedly took before they were transferred to occupied territory.