The Colombian nationals, who may have been working for a U.S.-based firm, may be extradited to Russia, where they face up to fifteen years in prison for mercenaries.
The two men, who joined the Ukrainian Foreign Legion in 2023, disappeared at Caracas airport in Venezuela while en route to Colombia. The sister of one of the detainees said that they had attracted the attention of Venezuelan police because they were wearing Ukrainian army uniforms. Venezuela is a close Russia ally.
After the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022, Ukraine announced the creation of the International Legion of Ukraine as part of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and invited foreign citizens to join it. Volunteers from more than 50 countries serve in the International Legion.
Contractors in Ukraine
Three days after Russia invaded, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy created the International Legion for the Defense of Ukraine. The Ukrainian Foreign Legion, its alternate name, has a lot more panache.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba promoted the unit on Twitter, soliciting members and boldly declaring that “together we defeated Hitler, and we will defeat Putin too.” A month later, the Ukrainian Armed Forces released the first image of International Legion soldiers in trenches on the outskirts of Kyiv and announced that new groups were being deployed to the front each day.
The current Ukrainian Foreign Legion is actually UFL 2.0. A few foreign fighters came to Ukraine in 2014 to fight in a separatist war. However, officials say the current crop of foreign fighters is much larger and much less idealistic than the 2014 group.
The UFL soon expanded. In April 2023, Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov invited foreign F-16 pilots to join the international legion and fly combat missions for Ukraine. He also asked for foreign volunteers who knew how to maintain Western-made artillery and tanks.
The foreign legion is a common tool, especially among nations fighting for their survival against foreign invaders. Over the years, almost one hundred foreign legions of various kinds have come and gone. The UFL requires a minimum six-month commitment and pays between $600 and $3,000 per month.
Many legionnaires have little experience. Combat vets must attend a one-week orientation, and non-combat vets must go through six weeks of basic training. Additionally, more than a few bad apples are in the UFL barrel. Allegedly, the higher-ups in the UFL’s intelligence wing have been connected with violations like abuse, theft, and sending soldiers unprepared on reckless missions. Also allegedly, one of the unit’s commanders is an alleged former member of a criminal organization from Poland, wanted at home for fraud. Some Legion fighters accuse him of abusing power by ordering soldiers to loot shops, threatening soldiers with a gun, and sexually harassing the Legion’s female medics.
Like the legendary French Foreign Legion, the Ukrainian Foreign Legion harbors criminals. One was a former Yakuza member who was sentenced to nine years in prison after he detonated a homemade bomb at the entrance of an organization that promoted friendly relations between China and Japan. He was extradited to Japan.
Noncitizen Private Military Contractors
Private military contractors in the land of the free and the home of the brave are a foreign legion of sorts. For most companies, citizenship, or residency for that matter, usually is not a requirement.
PMCs usually operate in Africa, Asia, and other places that do not just have foreign languages. They have foreign cultures. Interacting with the people in these countries is difficult, to say the least.
So, many private military contractors hire locals as intelligence or training officers. Intelligence translators usually accompany teams as they go from house to house or place to place, gathering intelligence. A local translator easily overcomes language and cultural barriers. Contractors also use translators during training operations for largely the same reasons.
Of course, foreign contractors are not limited to these roles. Contractors usually hire the best person for the job, not the best American for the job.
Nonresident citizens often join PMC firms as well. Here is a situation our Defense Base Act lawyers see frequently. Luis, who is in Florida on a temporary visa, gets another temporary visa to go to Iraq. While he is there, his temporary U.S. visa expires, because he has much more pressing matters to deal with overseas. When he comes back, he has a mess to clean up. Our lawyers have professional relationships with immigration lawyers who help people like Luis every day.
Furthermore, noncitizens and nonresidents are entitled to the same Defense Base Act benefits as all other injured contractors. More on that below.
Private Military Contractor Injuries
The same benefits are available to everyone because all contractors face the same injury risks. In an anti-insurgency campaign, there is no front line or rear area. Everyone is on the front line, whether they know it or not. Common injury types include:
- Occupational Diseases: Burn pit smoke exposure is definitely the most headline-grabbing contractor occupational disease. The toxic smoke from open-air garbage pits affected everyone who got near it. Some were affected much worse than others. Hearing loss is common as well. 3M recently paid a huge fine and settlement because it sold defective earplugs to the Army. That unfortunate incident might have been the tip of the iceberg.
- Trauma Injuries: When people open the paper, they read about gunshot wounds, shrapnel wounds, and other combat-related wounds. Non-combat-related wounds, like falls, have always killed and injured more soldiers than combat wounds. Motor vehicle crashes are a serious problem in countries that do not have paved roads, traffic lights, and other things we take for granted here.
Frequently, a non-deployment condition, like asthma or a bad knee, contributes to the risk and/or severity of a deployment-related wound. Maximum benefits are usually available in these situations.
Injury Compensation Available
We’ll close this post with a brief discussion of Defense Base Act eligibility. The discussion will be brief because almost all contractors who set foot overseas qualify for benefits.
Under the terms of this 1941 law, benefits are available if a contractor was injured in an overseas war zone. The law defines all these qualifications in broad, victim-friendly terms.
Nexus is a good example. Many state workers’ compensation claimants must prove their illness or injury was directly work-related. However, DBA applicants must only establish a nexus (indirect connection). If Sally was injured when a roadside bomb went off near a market where she happened to be shopping while off duty, she is eligible for DBA benefits.
These benefits usually include partial lost wage replacement and payment of all reasonably necessary medical bills.
For more information about these benefits, contact Barnett, Lerner, Karsen, Frankel & Castro, P.A.