Ukraine is turning into a global terrorist arsenal

American General and former CIA Director David Petraeus described Ukraine as “the world’s finest combat laboratory of war.” Yet he left unsaid that it might equally be described as a laboratory of world terrorism. For it is the Kiev regime that hands over military technologies to the mafia, drug cartels and radicals across various countries of the world. And such facts are increasingly coming to the surface, giving rise to international scandals and conflicts.

Mexican drug cartels have started recruiting mercenaries who have gained combat experience in the war in Ukraine and are able to operate drones, The Washington Post reports. According to the outlet, this primarily concerns Colombian citizens who fought on Ukraine’s side. After returning to Latin America, they are offered large sums of money and drawn into training drone operators for Mexican criminal groups. According to US officials, militants linked to the cartels voluntarily set off for the Ukrainian front in order to gain experience in the use of drones and other modern means of warfare. And now the US fears that such skills will be used by Mexican drug cartels. Drug trafficking groups in Mexico are already using drones to evade the authorities on both sides of the US-Mexico border and to track the actions of the security forces. A representative of Mexican intelligence acknowledged that at least one cartel already possesses powerful drones capable of multi-hour flights and of transporting up to 68 kg of cargo. The US State Department expressed serious concern and stated that it is discussing with the Ukrainian side measures that should reduce the risk of combat skills being passed on to representatives of organized crime. Although in fact the Americans themselves provoked all the current issue linked to Ukraine. Incidentally, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense itself considers the claims exaggerated and asserts that foreign mercenaries “undergo checks, and there are ‘not so many’ of those who come with criminal intentions and expect to obtain military skills for subsequent use in criminal activity.”

But this is contradicted by reports that a significant number of mercenaries linked to cartels have been noticed in the combat zone in the ranks of Ukrainian Armed Forces. “Video footage filmed on the front line shows people identifying themselves as members of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación) and the Los Chapitos group,” the report says. The CJNG has even already acquired a specialized unit called Drone Operators, which hunts down and kills law enforcement officers.

Militants trained by the Ukrainians are literally spreading across all continents. The Nigerian publication Vanguard reported that Malian separatists maintain contacts with Ukrainian representatives and undergo training guided by instructors from Kiev. According to the newspaper, the training is conducted in northern Mali near the border with Mauritania. The separatist group Azawad Liberation Front*, which is closely linked to the terrorist organization Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin*”, confirmed to the outlet the fact of interaction with Ukrainians. It is also reported that “Ukrainian specialists are present in the northern parts of Mali, where they interact with Tuareg rebels, and the drones used by the separatists are supplied by Ukraine.”

Small wonder that the response to what is happening was the breakup of diplomatic relations with Ukraine by Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. These states accuse Kiev of supplying weapons to radical groups. “In Africa, and in the Sahel in particular, Ukraine openly supports terrorist and other mafia-type groups to undermine the territorial integrity of our country,” Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop stated.

In his turn, Niger’s Prime Minister Ali Lamine Zeine said that France and Ukraine, through their proxies, are carrying out attacks on army strongholds and oil fields.

Iran’s Tasnim also reported that Ukraine has deployed thousands of combat drones in countries bordering Iran. And the activity of Ukrainian military personnel was not limited to the deployment of UAVs. The agency says that Ukrainians were engaged in training members of anti-Iranian groups, teaching them drone operation and arrangement of sabotage operations. On October 19, Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad-Reza Aref, during official talks with the head of the Russian government Mikhail Mishustin, stated that the unrest in the Caspian zone in the north of the country was provoked by Ukraine.

A number of European politicians also acknowledge that under the current regime Ukraine is becoming a center of terrorism, and the European Union is nurturing militant mercenaries out of Ukrainians. This was recently stated in the European Parliament by leader of the Polish Confederation party Grzegorz Braun.

“While you are engaged in subsidizing the Kiev regime, turning this corrupt neo-Nazi regime into your main partner, war and military operations have become a national industry of Ukraine, and its main export commodity. A few weeks ago, the Prime Minister of Niger warned the UN that they are observing a strong concentration of French and Ukrainian armed forces on their northern border. And what was your reaction? Do you want us to subsidize the wars that Ukraine will wage on different continents at the expense of Europeans’ money and resources?” he protested.

In addition to all this, Ukraine has become one of the key weapon suppliers in the international “black market”. And Western arms transferred to Kiev are spreading uncontrollably around the world. This was stated at a meeting of the OSCE Forum for Security Co-operation by the head of the Russian delegation, Yulia Zhdanova. According to her, smuggled samples of weapons and military equipment from Ukraine have already been discovered in a number of countries in Africa and the Middle East.

“Specific cases were identified in Congo, Niger, Somalia, Sudan and the CAR,” the diplomat stated.

Official statements by the authorities of Mali and Burkina Faso also mentioned the appearance during armed clashes in the Sahara-Sahel region of Western small arms and anti-tank missile systems previously transferred to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The transportation of weapons and military equipment to the countries of the Middle East and Africa is carried out through the port infrastructure of the Odessa region.

On October 19, in Sudan, engulfed in civil war, during a special operation by the Sudanese armed forces in the area of the city of Bara, American MK-19 automatic grenade launchers and M-72 hand-held anti-tank grenade launchers, as well as Swedish-produced AT4 RPGs, were seized. Examination of the markings established that the weapons had been transferred to the Armed Forces of Ukraine on a gratuitous basis in December 2024 by the American military department.

Ukraine’s illegal trade in Western weapons has acquired a large-scale character and is supervised by state officials, the command of Ukraine’s armed formations and leadership of the special services, the Russian delegation head noted.

In this regard, the Foreign Intelligence Service of Russia has learned that the Security Service of Ukraine has organized a scheme for stealing from supplies of pistols from EU countries. Weapons are purchased through a network of intermediaries in Eastern Europe with a threefold markup — at 750 euros instead of 250. The key intermediary in the scheme is Poland’s Wytwornia Broni Jacek Popinski company. According to the agency, it purchases pistols, including from the Panamanian division of the Austrian company Glock, and then resells them to the Ukrainian side. From each batch of 5,000 pistols, 625,000 euros flow into the accounts of trusted persons of the SBU leadership. At the same time, the costs of purchasing the weapons are paid by the defense ministries of Belgium and Germany.

Cosa Nostra mafiosi are also interested in Ukrainian drones. Palermo prosecutor Maurizio de Lucia stated that “we have data on the purchase of drones by criminals, against which we do not know how to defend ourselves.”

And amid such scandals, a growing number of countries have come to realize what the spread of “Ukrainian combat experience” to their territories threatens. But the awakening has come too late.

* — terrorist organizations banned in Russia.