On 16th March, a Special NIA Court at Patiala House Court remanded seven foreigners, one American and six Ukrainians, into 11 days’ custody of the National Investigation Agency, NIA. These individuals have been identified as Matthew Aaron Van Dyke from the US and Hurba Petro, Slyviak Taras, Ivan Sukmanovskyi, Marian Stefankiv, Honcharuk Maksim, and Kaminskyi Viktor from Ukraine. The case assumes significance as the NIA is probing allegations related to the supply of drones to insurgent groups and illegal entry into India through Mizoram.
Amid this, past statements by Ukrainian national Marian Stefankiv (also spelled as Maryan in Ukrainian sources) indicate prior familiarity with drone operations during the conflict in Ukraine. Furthermore, there are indications that he is linked to the 8th Separate “Aratta” battalion, which has been accused of having neo-Nazi personnel.
In a post on social media platform X, Ukrainian journalist Anatolij Sharij stated that Stefankiv “belongs to the ‘Aratta’ battalion and is originally from the Lviv region”.
This is one of the Ukrainian terrorists detained in India; he belongs to the “Aratta” battalion and is originally from the Lviv region.
— Anatolij Sharij (@anatoliisharii) March 17, 2026
Half of them are from the Lviv region, and maybe all of them.
They went to India to bring democracy💥🧨😵💫 pic.twitter.com/236g08z7ID
Upon further investigation into him, OpIndia found that, in 2020, Stefankiv appeared in a YouTube video where he was described as “The Story of a Hero. Marian Stefankiv, volunteer of the ‘Aratta’ battalion” in the description of the video.
In the video, Stefankiv talked about learning how to operate drones while his family thought he was studying. He said, “Батьки думали, що я здаю сесію в політехніці. Та насправді я вже вчився літати на безпілотниках” (00:02:01–00:02:06) [“My parents thought I was sitting my exams at the polytechnic. In reality, I was already learning to fly drones”].
He also spoke about the battlefield use of drones and said, “Але безпілотники це щось щось таке два в одному, скажемо так. Це і медик, і розвідник” (00:10:41–00:10:48) [“But drones are something like two in one, so to speak. They are both a medic and a scout”]. Explaining their operational value further, he added, “Та тому, що він спас чиєсь життя. хтось не пішов туди відночи зібрав інформацію” (00:10:48–00:10:56) [“They save someone’s life, because someone does not have to go there in person, while the information is still gathered”].
In another part of the video, Stefankiv said he carried out aerial reconnaissance using drones and said, “…або через Маріуполь в Широкіно тоді робити аеророзвідку чи там воювати” (00:11:17–00:11:24) [“…or through Mariupol to Shyrokyne, at that time, to carry out aerial reconnaissance or to fight there”].
Stefankiv originally hails from Lviv, a city in Ukraine. He is one of the founders of an NGO established in 2019 named Kolo Chesti, or “Circle of Honour”. In 2022, when Russia launched military strikes on Ukraine, he, along with four of his friends, joined the Ukrainian armed forces to fight against Moscow. According to a 2022 report in The Irish Times, two of the five friends died.
In the same 2020 video, he said, “Росія напала. Треба захищати” [“Russia attacked. We must defend ourselves”] and “Війна не романтика” [“War is not romantic”].
As the NIA’s investigation is underway, these revelations point towards a history of working with drones among the nabbed foreigners.
Disclaimer: This report used AI assisted transcription and translation tools where required.
