Foreign fighters in Ukraine: Colombian special forces on the front line
Many foreign volunteers from the world's farthest corners are also fighting in Ukraine. Among the most interesting cases are soldiers from special units in Colombia. Here is what they use to combat the Russians.
Ukraine eagerly employs experienced foreigners who fight in the International Legion. Below, you can see a unit of former special forces soldiers who came to Ukraine from Colombia and are sending their greetings.
They belong to the 49th Independent Assault Battalion "Carpathian Sich" and are fighting somewhere in the Kreminna region of the Luhansk Oblast. They also possess significant anti-tank strength capable of eliminating a large armoured assault by the Russians, as there are likely boxes of additional anti-tank launchers out of frame.
Here is what the Colombian volunteers are equipped with
The first soldier on the left is equipped with a standard RPG-7 anti-tank grenade launcher, with a likely Bulgarian or possibly Serbian PG-7VR grenade. It is a specialised tandem variant with a double cumulative head designed to penetrate reactive armour such as Kontakt-1/5 and bar armour.
This means that even the extensive use of scrap armour on Russian tanks will be ineffective, as the small cumulative head first clears a path through the armour for the larger one, which then detonates under optimal conditions.
According to the manufacturer, such grenades can penetrate 0.76 metres of steel armour, but their disadvantage is that they are significantly more cumbersome due to their length and weight. The PG-7VR grenade weighs about 4.5 kilograms, while the standard PG-7VL grenades weigh about 2.7 kilograms. This weapon's effective range is 200 metres.
The second soldier has a universal PKM machine gun or its Bulgarian copy, the MG-M1. This support weapon is powered by 100 or 200-round belt segments. With a rate of fire of 650 rounds per minute, it allows for a much higher intensity of fire compared to standard magazine-fed rifles.
Furthermore, firing from the machine gun in the larger 7.62x54R mm calibre allows for much better penetration of ballistic shields (if they are real and not just made of planks) and the deployment of suppressive fire up to 2 kilometres. However, the weapon's downside is its weight, as the PKM/MG-M1 weighs approximately 8.6 kilograms empty, increasing to 12.3 kilograms when loaded with a 100-round belt.
The third soldier on the right is holding a simple, single-use anti-tank grenade launcher, the AT4, likely from the USA or Sweden. Depending on the version, AT4 launchers can penetrate 35 to 46 centimetres of steel armour. However, some users of the latest AT4CS ER variants claim that penetration of 60 centimetres of steel is possible.
The range of these launchers varies between 300 and 600 metres, depending on whether we are talking about older or newer ER (Extended Range) versions. These are very good parameters for a weapon weighing approximately 7 to 9 kilograms, which has already destroyed the best Russian tank, the T-90M.
The RGW90 is a single-use 90 mm grenade launcher weighing between 7.5 and 9.2 kilograms, utilising a dual-function warhead type HEAT/HESH (cumulative/deformable), which is set before use. This allows for the destruction of both tanks and light fortifications.
The simplest HH variant's warhead can penetrate over 50 centimetres of steel or more than 60 centimetres with reactive armour for the tandem warhead variant, designated HEAT/HESH-Tandem (HH-T). It is also a very safe weapon for the user as the grenade arms itself only after about 20 metres and can be fired from enclosed spaces without any problems, which can be lethal with many older designs. The theoretical maximum range of this grenade launcher is 500/600 metres, but the effective range will be lower, approximately 300/400 metres.
