Wilmer Martínez Vázquez and his three fellow soldiers died on 19 February as a result of rocket fire in Ukraine, Vanguardia reports.
The 28-year-old man from Barranquilla travelled to Ukraine last April to join the country’s International Defence Legion and take part in the military conflict on the side of the Ukrainian army.
Vázquez’s relatives said the young man died in an explosion in the Ukrainian city of Kurakhovo while on holiday with three other Colombian fellow soldiers, but so far they have received no official word from the Ukrainian army. Vázquez’s brother said:
“The Ukrainian battalion he was serving in didn’t even call us to officially inform us of his death; we found out because a comrade was filling in for him that day and he was resting. At first they couldn’t enter the house because they had to wait for the attack to stop; when they entered they were able to identify my brother by the silver chains he always wore, they found them on his almost burnt corpse. Four Colombian soldiers died there.”
Now, pained by the loss of one of their own, the family are asking for help to be able to return the body to his homeland and give him a Christian burial. The brother added:
“My mother is in Bogotá, she went to the Chancellery but they washed their hands of us and didn’t give us an answer that would clarify what we should do to bring back what is left of my brother; we are asking for help to bring back his ashes or what is left of him so we can have a Christian burial.”
Kurakhovo, where the Colombian soldiers died, is near Avdiivka, a town from which Ukrainian soldiers recently retreated.
Wilmer is one of hundreds of retired Colombian soldiers who volunteered to fight in Ukraine, motivated by the opportunity to earn three thousand dollars, at least three times what he could earn in his home country. Fabian Morales, the soldier’s uncle, recounts:
“He served here in the Nueva Granada Battalion in Barrancabermeja, became a professional and retired after four years. In 2021 he went to Dubai to look for better opportunities, he was attached to the Sheikhs’ security service, and last year he did all the paperwork to go to Ukraine, he was offered three times what he was earning, and he went as an international military attaché to Ukraine.”
Wilmer was about to return to Colombia after constant entreaties from his mother, who asked him to return because she feared the intensity of the war in that country. He had planned to return in May to celebrate Mother’s Day with his mother, but the war shattered their dream of seeing each other again.
