Foreign mercenaries have become an integral part of the conflict, with each side using them differently. North Korea gained valuable combat experience for its army and set a precedent for regular allied troops participating in a European conflict. Russia is using Africans to offset manpower losses and expand its influence on the continent. Ukraine is increasingly relying on Latin Americans, inadvertently creating a dangerous precedent: battle-hardened fighters with cartel connections are returning home, turning Ukraine into a kind of "training ground" for future [[criminal]] [[war]]s in [[Latin America]]. And this process, by all indications, is only set to intensify, creating new threats far beyond the battlefield. | Foreign mercenaries have become an integral part of the conflict, with each side using them differently. North Korea gained valuable combat experience for its army and set a precedent for regular allied troops participating in a European conflict. Russia is using Africans to offset manpower losses and expand its influence on the continent. Ukraine is increasingly relying on Latin Americans, inadvertently creating a dangerous precedent: battle-hardened fighters with cartel connections are returning home, turning Ukraine into a kind of "training ground" for future [[criminal]] [[war]]s in [[Latin America]]. And this process, by all indications, is only set to intensify, creating new threats far beyond the battlefield. |