"Mom, I’m on my way. Save me some sancocho!"
Those were the last words Otilia Ante, 78, heard from her son Alexander, 47, as he asked her to set aside some of the hearty meat and corn stew that defined his upbringing in southwestern Colombia.
At the time, Alexander was in neighboring Venezuela, navigating a complex route home from Ukraine, where he had fought against invading Russian forces.
Tragically, he and his Colombian comrade, Jose Medina, 36, never reached the final leg of their long journey back from the battlefield. They vanished on July 18 in Venezuela, a close ally of Russia, just before their connecting flight to Bogota.
The next time their families saw the men was in a video released by Russia's FSB security service on August 30, showing them being led down a corridor in prison garb with their hands cuffed behind their backs before being interrogated.
Moscow accuses the pair of acting as mercenaries, a crime punishable in Russia by up to 15 years in prison.
Jose's wife, Cielo Paz, said seeing the images left her "heartbroken."
Describing the anxious wait for news about his fate, she said she and the couple's seven-year-old daughter "feel as if we're also imprisoned."
Jose and Alexander hail from Colombia's southwestern Cauca department, the epicenter of a decades-old conflict involving the Colombian army, right-wing paramilitaries, left-wing guerrillas and drug gangs.
The pair met on the front lines in eastern Ukraine, 11,000 kilometers (about 6,800 miles) from home, in a battalion that included many foreigners, and suffered heavy losses.
After fighting through the grueling Ukrainian winter into spring, they asked to be discharged.
The men's families deny they were guns for hire, insisting they were recruited by the Ukrainian government and not a private contractor.
Colombia has one of Latin America's largest armies and a growing pool of ex-soldiers acting as mercenaries.
About 50 Colombians have been killed in Ukraine since the start of the war in February 2022, according to Colombian government figures.
Jose and Alexander were paid $3,000 a month to fight alongside Ukrainian forces – almost ten times the basic salary of a Colombian soldier.
After 14 years in the army, Alexander, who is married with a daughter, went to work as a cash-in-transit driver but was laid off after failing an eye test.
After months of unemployment, he decided to enlist again, this time in Ukraine.
"His plan was to go there and earn enough money to get his mother out of this neighborhood," Alexander's brother Arbey told Agence France-Presse (AFP), describing the district of Popayan as "very dangerous."
He said recruiters assured the Colombians they would not be deployed on the front lines.
"I think they were deceived," he said.
"My love, here we are in Caracas," Jose wrote in his last WhatsApp message to Cielo from Caracas International Airport.
"He was on his way home," she told AFP at their Popayan home, which Jose was planning to finish building with his earnings.
Arbey said Alexander and Jose chose to fly through Venezuela because "the tickets were cheaper" and the pair were unaware of developments in the increasingly isolated Latin American state.
Venezuela was then in the midst of a high-stakes presidential campaign. Incumbent strongman Nicolas Maduro claimed victory despite polling station results published by the opposition that appeared to show a clear win for their candidate.
Russia is one of just a handful of countries to have recognized Maduro's victory, leading to speculation that the Venezuelan strongman handed over the Colombians as thanks.
Bogota last week issued its first statement on the matter, saying it had requested information from Moscow about their "legal status, location, and health status."
It added that a third Colombian, Miguel Angel Cardenas, was also being held, without giving further details.
The men have been assigned a lawyer, but their families say they have been unable to communicate with their state-appointed defender.
Holding up a picture of Jose in uniform, his daughter, Alison, told AFP he meant "nearly everything" to her.
"Give him back to me," she appealed.
