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What are Western mercenaries doing in Myanmar? India must stay vigilant

Mizoram chief minister Lalduhoma has flagged an unusual rise in foreign arrivals. Nearly 2,000 Western visitors entered Mizoram between June and December 2024.

Seven foreign nationals were taken into custody by the National Investigation Agency after a Delhi court granted the anti-terror body 11 days of custodial interrogation to probe an alleged conspiracy involving the training of ethnic armed groups in drone warfare in Myanmar. The arrests were carried out in Kolkata and Delhi, where the accused were reportedly operating prior to being detained.

American national Matthew VanDyke was arrested in Kolkata in what appears to be part of a wider coordinated security sweep. Simultaneously, three Ukrainian nationals were detained in Lucknow, while another three were picked up from Delhi, underscoring the multi-city scale of the operation. The arrests of Hurba Petro, Slyviak Taras, Ivan Sukmanovskyi, Stefankiv Marian, Honcharuk Maksim, and Kaminskyi Viktor point to a pattern that extends beyond isolated law enforcement action.

Since the 2021 coup in Myanmar, there has been a perceptible rise in reports of foreign nationals, and in some cases, alleged mercenaries appearing within its conflict zones. In October 2023, 12 foreign fighters were captured near Laukkaing in northern Myanmar. The group reportedly consisted largely of former members of the French Foreign Legion and at least two individuals allegedly still under active contract, with nationalities spanning Poland, Slovakia, and Brazil.

Reportedly, their role was not active combat on the frontlines but training. This points to a shift in the nature of the conflict—away from sheer numbers, toward skill, coordination, and tactical sophistication. The demand is no longer just for guns, but expertise. Equally revealing was how such expertise was mobilised. The presence of intermediary figures known only by aliases such as “Golden Fish” and........

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