Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) claimed on October 20 that US law enforcement is investigating links between Ukraine's government and Mexican drug cartels, including drone training for cartel members in Ukraine's armed forces.
In a statement from its press bureau, the SVR said US investigators had found that cartels had for a long time been sending members to Ukraine to learn to assemble drones and use them in combat.
At least 80 people had completed such training in the Ukrainian army, it said, and the cartels had paid officials close to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy with the proceeds of drug sales in the US. Cartel drone operators trained in Ukraine posed a threat to US officers fighting drug trafficking on the Mexican border, it added.
The SVR gave no evidence and named no officials. Neither the US government nor Kyiv has commented, and no US agency has announced any such investigation.
THe SVR has a long history of effectively launching negative memes into the social media as part of Russia’s disinformation campaign in its information war with Ukraine. Nevertheless, the claims are usually worth investigation as with all the best lies they are often based on a kernel of truth.
There is a real underlying story about Mexican cartels acquiring sophisticated drone capabilities and drawing on Ukraine-war experience, but typically the SVR allegation goes substantially beyond the evidence currently available.
There is strong documented evidence that Mexican cartels are already using drones in connection with trafficking into the United States. In June, the US Army's Joint Interagency Task Force 401 said that as many as 1,000 cartel drones cross the US-Mexico border each month, carrying out activities including “drug smuggling and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance operations.”
The US has taken the threat seriously enough to impose new restrictions on unauthorised drone flights along the border, extending one nautical mile north of the frontier and up to 400 feet.
There is also evidence that cartels are actively buying more capable drones that can carry bigger payloads and have greater range, according to a recent Washington Post investigation. Moreover that investigation did find a Ukraine connection, as Mexican cartels were recruiting Colombians who had returned from fighting in the Russia-Ukraine and had experience of operating drones. However, none of the SVR claims beyond this connection have been substantiated – especially not that Mexican drug money is flowing to Ukrainian officials or drone manufacturers.
Propoganda purposes
The claim was amplified by Russian state media and pro-Kremlin channels on Telegram and X, with Rossiyskaya Gazeta running it under the headline "A nail in the coffin of Zelensky".
The allegation comes as Moscow seeks to widen the gap between Washington and Kyiv over peace talks and possible US sanctions relief on Russian diesel. It also echoes a real case. Ukrainian counterintelligence said in 2025 that Mexican and Colombian cartels had infiltrated the foreign volunteer units of Ukraine's International Legion to acquire first-person-view drone skills, after a warning from Mexico's National Intelligence Center. That investigation was Kyiv's own and accused volunteers, not Ukrainian officials.
The SVR has made similar accusations before. In September it said Western spy agencies had found no Russian role in a drone plot at Leipzig airport and pointed at Ukraine. Germany had earlier blamed Russia for the drone activity; our September report did not establish that Germany had explicitly rejected this specific SVR claim.