Colombians go to fight in Ukraine’s war for a way out of poverty. Many never come home.

At her small home in Bogotá, Jennifer Roman flipped through an old album of photos of her brother, Jhonatan, wondering where he might be now.

The former police officer enlisted in the Ukrainian army last year, seeking a better income. But the Ukrainian army says he disappeared on Feb. 15 during a mission in the eastern Donbas Region.

“Our family has gone through all kinds of emotions,” Roman said. “We have tried to grieve, but it’ s difficult because we don’t have proof he’s dead. We have cried with joy when we’ve heard rumors that he could be a prisoner of war.”

Hundreds of Colombians have joined Ukraine’s army since Russia’s full-scale invasion began four years ago — often just for the money. But many have gone missing during battles against Russian forces, leaving their families desperate for answers.

In Ukraine, soldiers who serve on the front lines can earn up to $7,000 a month. That’s an appealing sum for many families in Colombia, where the average worker makes around $500 a month.

The Romans live on the outskirts of the capital, Bogotá, in a two-bedroom apartment with no windows in the living room. In her kitchen, where she cooks on a portable countertop stove, Jhonatan’s mother, Maria Roman, said her son was encouraged to enlist in Ukraine’s army by former colleagues in Bogota’s police force, who said they had survived the war and saved thousands of dollars.

At the time, Jhonatan worked for a phone company and earned slightly above Colombia’s minimum wage.

“He wanted to ensure a better future for his 9-year-old daughter,” Maria Roman said. “He wanted her to study at the university and take care of her until she graduated, and with his wages in Colombia, it was very hard for him to do that.”

Jennifer said that her brother had plans for the whole family and was motivated to enlist in the war mainly for economic reasons.

“He said that, with the money he earned in Ukraine, he would buy a car. And take us on vacation,” Jennifer recalled. “I’ve never been to the sea, so he told me he would take me there as well.”

But now, Jhonatan is missing — like many other Colombians who have joined the distant conflict in Ukraine.

According to Colombian authorities, nearly 450 Colombians have gone missing while fighting for Ukraine’s army. Meanwhile, 160 Colombians fighting on the Russian side have also gone missing in action.

Recently, the families of the disappeared have been staging protests in Bogotá to get more support in the search for their relatives, showing up with photos of the missing Colombian soldiers outside Colombia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and at Bogotá’s main airport.

The group also staged a protest at a toll booth, where they tried — unsuccessfully — to block the entrance to a highway leading into the capital.

“Our relatives have been listed as missing by many government agencies,” said Sonia Susa, whose son has been missing for a year now. “But we need more information on what happened to them.”

Finding a missing soldier can be complicated, though, especially if they have been killed on the front lines.

Carlos Ramirez, a human rights lawyer, has been trying to help families with their searches. He said that the characteristics of the war, where drones are chasing down those who get close to the line of contact, make it difficult to retrieve bodies.

“Some bodies are abandoned for months,” Ramirez said. “It’s hard to retrieve corpses when they’re in disputed areas, or in zones that are now under enemy control.”

Back in Colombia, the relatives of missing soldiers have started to provide DNA samples to authorities to try and help identify the bodies that are now in bad shape.

“Initially, families were doing these DNA tests on their own at a high cost,” said Ramirez, who also runs a nonprofit that helps Colombian families whose relatives have been killed in the conflict or have gone missing. “Now we have convinced Colombia’s government to gather these samples for free and send them to police in Russia and Ukraine.”

Jennifer Roman said she’s frustrated with the long wait for answers. So, she’s raising funds to travel to Ukraine, where she’d like to search for her brother in hospitals and morgues.

“If he is dead, we will have to accept that,” Roman said. “But he deserves a dignified burial. His mother and his daughter deserve closure.”

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