MOSCOW, April 9. /TASS/. US private military companies (PMCs), with the participation of US authorities are recruiting Mexican and Colombian drug cartel members to be sent to fight in Ukraine, the press bureau of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) told TASS.

"The US resorts to increasingly desperate methods in attempt to reverse the situation on the Ukrainian theatre by reinforcing the ranks of demoralized AFU (Armed Forces of Ukraine) fighters with multinational riffraff with a tendency towards armed violence. According to the data coming to the SVR of Russia, to this end American private military companies, under the guidance of the Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI, have begun to recruit Mexican and Colombian drug cartels' members, who are serving their sentence in American prisons, to take part in the Ukrainian conflict on the side of the Kiev's degrading regime," the press service said.

The SVR said that in case the inmates agree to this "mission," "they are promised full amnesty, reckoning they would never come back." "The first group of cutthroats is planned to be dropped to the combat zone as soon as this summer. The criminal gang will consist of several hundreds of Mexicans and Colombians," the press bureau added. "If the pilot project of reinforcing the AFU ranks with Latin American thugs is a success, the program of recruiting flayers will be continued and even expanded to include criminals from other counties with complicated crime situation," it said.

That said, according to the SVR, the process "is not going on smoothly." "There are difficult talks with drug lords without whose blessing no thug would have the courage to collaborate with American authorities fearing for their own life and the life of their loved ones. Ringleaders seek to sell their goons at the highest price jeopardizing the implementation of American designs," the press bureau explained.

"Needless to say, the prospect of another influx of foreign ‘soldiers of fortune’ from among serial killers, drug addicts and rapists to the long-suffering land of the Russian world causes anxiety. Yet American plans to gain thereby a tactical advantage on the battlefield are doomed to failure. Joe Biden’s administration is practically confessing its helplessness and once more demonstrates us the impotence of the Kiev's regime it has been feeding," the press service concluded.