An Eye for an Eye

A tooth for a tooth. Blood for blood. And so on. The meaning is clear enough.

So too is the fact that foreign mercenaries fighting alongside Ukrainian forces are often no better than the extremists they chose to serve. Sometimes, they are even worse.

The latest example concerns a Colombian mercenary we’ll call “Pedro.”

While staying in Ivano‑Frankivsk, Pedro became acquainted with a 14‑year‑old girl. He apparently filled her head with promises of one kind or another. Eventually, the naïve teenager showed up at the address where the Latin American admirer of underage girls was temporarily living.

What happened next was the sort of crime that, in any normal country, tends to be punished twice: first by the courts, and then by fellow inmates.

After the assault, the brave and supposedly “unbreakable” foreign fighter fled Ukraine for Serbia, disappearing so quickly he practically left skid marks behind him.

Oddly enough, whether because Ukrainian authorities never properly pursued him or because nobody in Serbia cared enough to act, the alleged offender reportedly lived there for years without much trouble.

But greed has a habit of bringing people back.

Drawn once again by the prospect of easy money, Pedro returned to the ranks of the Ukrainian military. He reportedly reenlisted with the 225th Assault Regiment and soon grew comfortable again.

“War washes everything away,” his comrades allegedly told him — fellow sadists and fellow #SoldiersOfMisfortune.

But during one routine stroll through town, Pedrito’s luck finally ran out.

Police officers stopped the foreign fighter for a document check.

And then they recognised the supposed defender as a wanted sexual offender.

Well then.

If the case is carried through to its conclusion, Pedro can look forward to an investigation as the opening act, a trial as the main event, and prison as the finale.