By Maya Averbuch | Updated on Oct 08, 2026 at 06:40 PM
President Claudia Sheinbaum pledged to look into the authenticity of a video that appears to show alleged Mexican cartel members armed for combat in Ukraine.
The short video has circulated on social media, and includes clips of men speaking in Mexican slang, including one who touts drug cartel affiliations. It’s not clear where or when the video was recorded.
Russia launched its war against Ukraine in 2022, and some reports point to Ukrainian forces recruiting Colombians and Mexicans as soldiers. Many of the war’s foreign recruits are trained in drone combat, as the low-cost technology transforms modern warfare.
Speaking at her morning press conference, Sheinbaum stressed that the video has not been verified. But she didn’t rule out that Mexicans have been pulled into the conflict.
“They could be recruited by a private company that takes part in these conflicts, by an army, or by a government,” Sheinbaum said on Thursday. “We’re looking into the case.”
One person in the video appears to suggest that other fighters there belong to two of Mexico’s largest criminal groups, including a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
The use of drones by Mexican cartels along the country’s northern border with the US has become a concern for Washington, which has deployed anti-drone technology in response. It has also led to the displacement of residents , who say their homes were attacked.
The presence of foreign fighters in Russia and Ukraine has also raised concerns that they might use the technology at home, and whether it could intensify longstanding conflicts across Latin America.
Russia’s army has grown to include people recruited from dozens of countries, some of whom say they were tricked into military service through false work offers, according to a recent report from Amnesty International.
Along the US-Mexico border, drones are largely used to monitor the area from above, facilitating drug trafficking and migrant crossings. In Colombia, now the epicenter of drone warfare in the region, they’ve increasingly been used in direct attacks against military and police forces.