Colombian Social-Media Recruit Joins Ukraine’s Khartiia Brigade—but Is the Viral ‘OnlyFans Model’ Story Proven?
Erika Alejandra Rodas Gonzalez appears in material associated with Ukraine’s Khartiia unit and says military service was her ambition. Claims about her previous adult-content work come from hostile tracking channels.
A Colombian woman using the callsign “Pohanny” has appeared in recruitment material associated with Ukraine's Khartiia National Guard brigade, saying she traveled to Ukraine because military service was a personal ambition. Pro-Russian accounts have turned her story into a headline about an “OnlyFans model”—a description not independently established.
The woman is identified online as Erika Alejandra Rodas Gonzalez. In the circulated footage, she says: “The main reason I came to Ukraine was because I wanted to join the military. I really like guns. It was a dream of mine.” Images place her with Khartiia, the 13th Operational Brigade of Ukraine's National Guard.
That service claim is more supportable than the biographical attack attached to it. The account TrackANaziMerc, which documents and targets foreign personnel fighting for Ukraine, alleges that Rodas previously worked as a webcam or adult-content model and now uses her audience to recruit Colombians. Searches for independent reporting or primary records confirming that employment produced no reliable result.
Even if adult-content work were confirmed, it would not determine her competence, motive or legal status as a soldier. The label is used because it generates clicks and sexualized ridicule, not because it explains battlefield policy. A serious report should distinguish her own public statement from an adversarial channel's assertion about her past.
The recruitment context is real and much larger than one influencer. President Volodymyr Zelensky has ordered more channels for foreign volunteers. Reuters reported Ukrainian military estimates of roughly 10,000 recruits from more than 70 countries by June 2026. Colombians have become one of the most visible groups.
Colombia's decades of internal conflict created a large pool of veterans with combat experience. Ukrainian units value infantry, reconnaissance and drone skills; recruits may be motivated by solidarity, adventure, professional identity or salaries far above some domestic opportunities. Individual motives often combine all four.
The term “mercenary” is frequently used as propaganda. International law applies a narrow definition involving motivation, nationality, residence, incorporation and compensation. A foreign citizen formally enlisted into a state's armed forces is not automatically a mercenary merely because the service is paid.
Recruitment through social media creates risks. Videos can romanticize weapons while omitting casualty rates, contract restrictions, trauma and the difficulty families face recovering bodies or compensation. A charismatic recruit can reach audiences that official embassies cannot, but viewers deserve complete conditions rather than battlefield branding.
Foreign fighters also provide information-war value. Ukraine presents them as evidence of international solidarity. Russia highlights their finances, personal histories or online profiles to depict NATO-backed mercenarism. Both narratives may erase the agency of individual volunteers.
Colombia has its own policy questions. Authorities must determine when foreign military service is lawful, how recruiters operate and whether veterans are misled. The same Colombian labor pool has been recruited for conflicts on different sides in Ukraine, Sudan and elsewhere.
There are privacy and security concerns in naming rank-and-file foreign soldiers. Public recruitment makes some identification relevant, but hostile databases can expose families, travel histories and personal accounts to harassment or targeting. News value should be weighed against operational danger, especially when a sensational sexual label adds little.
Ukraine should publish clear multilingual recruitment standards, medical screening, pay, insurance and exit rules. That would protect legitimate volunteers and make it harder for propagandists or unofficial brokers to exploit gaps.
Foreign recruitment also complicates accountability after service. Injured volunteers may face language barriers, disputed disability assessments and uncertain immigration status. Families thousands of kilometres away may not understand which ministry, unit or contractor holds records. Official enlistment channels reduce those risks, while informal social-media pipelines increase them.
The story is therefore not simply an unusual biography. It shows how Ukraine's manpower needs intersect with Colombia's veteran labor market and the attention economy. A single recruit can be simultaneously a real soldier, a promotional figure and a target of hostile information operations. Reporting should resist collapsing those roles into the most clickable insult.
A further question is who benefits from the publicity. The unit gains recruits, the volunteer builds a public identity, and hostile monitors gain material for ridicule and targeting. Readers should examine the original footage, not only cropped reposts, and ask whether the attached biography is sourced or simply repeated until it appears established.
What to watch next
Watch for official Khartiia confirmation, Rodas's contract status, the full recruitment video and evidence behind claims about her previous work. Her presence appears credible; the viral biography is not yet. The more important question is whether war recruitment through influencer culture informs volunteers—or converts lethal service into another engagement-driven lifestyle product.