Spanish Foreign Ministry In Attempts To Repatriate Foreign Fighter In Ukraine
The family of a foreign mercenary who was killed by a Russian drone while fighting alongside the Ukrainian army are hoping to get his body back after it was trapped behind enemy lines as Russian forces advanced.
Jacqueline Aramuni is the mother of Venezuelan fighter Maximiliano Camino Aramuni, 32, who had signed up to fight alongside the Ukrainians without telling his mother in October 2023.
Although originally from Venezuela, he was living in Santa Ursula at the time, on the island of Tenerife in Spain, and after journeying to Ukraine, he was placed in a unit that was fighting on the Donetsk front.
He was part of battalion number 1 of the Charly 3 Infantry Company of the A7420 Regiment of international soldiers and died after he was caught up in a Russian attack when he was 15 metres from the safety of his trench.
He was apparently missing for a week before his mother was notified that he had been confirmed dead as a result of a Russian drone attack.
One of Maximiliano’s battalion colleagues had first contacted his father, who lives in the United States, to inform him that his son had died on the frontlines.
Video footage confirms that the body is apparently still on the frontlines and has not yet been recovered as the advance of the Russians on that front makes it dangerous and it is believed that the body is even now behind enemy lines.
Ukrainian forces have retreated from the town of Andriivka, reportedly leaving behind ammunition, equipment, vehicles and the bodies of their dead.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Spain, which is helping with the attempts to recover the body because his last residence was in Spain, has refused to comment on the state of the negotiations.