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When Volodymyr Zelensky raised the call, a makeshift army of foreign volunteers came flooding into Ukraine: They were fishermen and accountants, schoolteachers and security guards, mercenaries and humanitarians. The U.S. State Department warned American citizens not to travel to Ukraine, citing the extreme danger, though the government has made no firm statement on the legality of volunteering. American And British Military Veterans To Fight Russia With Ukraine Nearly eight years later, the war is ongoing along a static, entrenched front line. His friend got killed first, the Japanese guy just a short while later. The sounds of coughing and wheezing, especially among the children, filled the space. Giorgi Kurashvili, an actor from Georgia. They were supposed to be joining our unit here in Kyiv in the next few days, he said. Ive become the father figure, he told me. You dont know whats going to happen day to day here, he said. . Moscow denies this, but admits that Russian "volunteers" are fighting for the rebels. All rights reserved. After languishing in the backfield for weeks, the trio was now embarking on increasingly dangerous assignments. Michael Young, a lean 36-year-old American with a shaved head, sat in the booth of a dim bar near Maidan Square and sipped at his Heineken. In 2006 he suffered a series of what he describes only as mental health problems. After he sought treatment at a psychiatric hospital, Young got little sympathy from his commanders. Extensive second-degree burns, shrapnel, their contact wrote. As the first surge of applicants declared their intentions to volunteer, a spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Defense declared that all foreign fighters would be treated as mercenaries, rather than as combatants; thus they would not be protected by the Geneva Conventions, which prohibit the torture and execution of prisoners of war. Some of the volunteers that haunted the pub hailed from outfits with sketchy reputations, like Right Sector, an ultra-nationalist umbrella group of paramilitary units that had sprung up in late 2013 during the protests against the countrys then president, Viktor Yanukovych. We have to fight for Ukraines freedom., On this days drills, the five Georgians are all combat veterans of Russias 2008 invasion of their homeland. Its raining rockets here. The Georgian National Legion or Georgian Legion (Ukrainian: , romanized: Hruzynskyy natsionalnyy lehion; Georgian: kartuli legioni) is a military unit formed by mostly ethnic Georgian volunteers fighting on the side of Ukraine in the War in Donbas and the Russo-Ukrainian War. Members of the Georgia Legion at their base in Kyiv, May 2022. Oleg, 13, holds a training weapon at a military training course with the Georgian National Legion in Kyiv on Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022. At the beginning of 2022, he caught COVID, quit the arborist job, and spent the early months of the year doing the same work in the Idaho Panhandle, sawing branches through the cold, dark winter. The long days of mundaneness punctuated by these rare hours of consequence and dramait was a cycle that had eroded some of the uncertainty hed possessed when hed first stepped off the bus in Ukraine. We were told that there are 50 Britons currently serving in the unit. If escalation begins, many will join us from Ukraine alone, not to mention overseas, said Adam Osmayev, commander of the Dzhokhar Dudayev Battalion, a Chechen volunteer battalion that fought in the Donbas alongside Ukrainian forces. My family history is a fight against Russian occupation, so of course they are trying to get rid of me, and my family members too.. By the end of May they were receiving assignments and driving almost daily to contested Luhansk towns such as Pryvillia and Severodonetsk, then held by Ukrainian forces but infiltrated by mobile teams of Russian troops. I am a true liberal, he told me. French volunteers plan to head to Ukraine to join its new foreign legion. 8 I never had a chance to work as a diplomat because we have such a neighbor, Russia, that never understands the diplomatic language, Mamulashvili said. A bellwether, perhaps, for a potential wave of foreign fighters coming to Ukraines defense in the event of a Russian re-invasion. Once approved for service, the foreign volunteer must then apply to an individual unit for acceptance normally, a letter of invitation from a battalion commander is required to formally join a unit. Together, they share one overriding aim - the destruction of Vladimir Putin's Russia. English teacher Anton, 22, now fields calls from people around the world who want to come to Ukraine to battle. Although pro-Ukraine foreign fighters have come from 38 countries, the overwhelming majority are Russians about 3,000, according to The Soufan Center. Ukraine's foreign legion joins the battle against Russia Mamuka insists all would-be fighters are vetted to eliminate individuals who may not be a good fit. Rendezvous points, supply checklists, current conditions inside the conflict zone. He had found reserves of strength. In the wake of Ukraines 2014 pro-democratic revolution, Russian military forces launched an unconventional military offensive in the eastern Donbas region. Former yakuza; Japanese volunteer in the Georgia National Legion Outside, the city streets were slick and cold with the April drizzle. Then another passenger in the ambulance who knew Severodonetsk took the wheel, guiding them through a series of turns until they crossed the bridge and sped out of the city. Mamulashvili said he was inspired to support Ukraine after he saw videos of police cruelty against unarmed student protesters during Ukraines 2013 to 2014 pro-democratic revolution. Follow. On command, he drops to one knee, adopting a shooting position. Im not an angry person. We stand on the wall, not letting the barbarian hordes get into the country, making sacrifices in our lives so that rest of the people can have normal lives.. A volunteer who was working alongside the Georgia Legion called the assertions completely false, claiming in videos provided to a journalist that Hoeft did not pass the legions vetting process and was responding to being rejected. I dont have a timeline for when I will return home, he told family and friends. In Georgia, Calls Emerge To Retake South Ossetia, Abkhazia As the American quietly put it to me, We will be helping him get citizenship in this country.. Youngs lifelong restlessness and search for fulfillment had taken him, step by step, to the edge of a catastrophic conflict in a land far from home, and would, over the next weeks, draw him in even deeper. He was there when Putin sent his troops over the border. He had spent the long, wet day training with Ukrainian reservists. Some foreigners arrived in Ukraine expecting to be immediately dispatched to fight Russian tanksonly to face what they saw as a shortage of munitions and a seemingly interminable wait to get to the front. Levchenko . Can Nigeria's election result be overturned? Meet the Men Paying to Have Their Jaws Broken in the Name of Manliness, Inside Daniel Lee's Burberry Debut, London Fashion Week's Biggest Show, The Big Little Secrets to Paul Rudds Massive Appeal. For a few panicky moments, he was all but certain that hed make a wrong turn and run into a Russian position. Is Russia Invading Ukraine: Western Foreign Fighters Arrive - BuzzFeed News President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has implored people across Europe to help, and hundreds have responded, according to news reports from countries like Britain and Sweden. US volunteer fighter: "Stop coming to Ukraine, it's a trap and they're Moreover, my wife was Ukrainian by birth, and she is buried on this land, as well as our general Isa Munaev.. It was created on 27 February 2022 by the Ukrainian government at the request of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to fight against the Russian invasion of the country. As for the rumor that had rattled Youngthe story about the reputed deaths of four or five volunteer fighters that he had shared that evening in the pub in Kyivno clarifying details ever materialized. F. oreign mercenaries are being offered $2,000 (1,512) a day to fight against Russian troops as part of the new foreign legion, according to reports. Since 1936, Georgia and Ukraine were officially known as the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic and the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic . Its Yes, we want to fight, and theyre moving people with no experience quickly into battle., Yet other volunteers offered a gripe of an opposite nature. Nothing official was ever confirmed. Apart from ideological or historical objectives, each foreign volunteer soldier also possesses uniquely personal motives, which led him or her to war. What will Ukraine's legion of foreign fighters mean for the war? A former professional mixed martial arts fighter who holds a post-graduate degree in international relations from a French university, Mamulashvili saw Russias 2014 attack on Ukraine as one more battle in his lifelong struggle against Russian oppression. Not since that conflict has a war in Europe elicited such a groundswell of support from foreign recruits. There were men like Watson with roots in Ukraine, and others, like Casey, driven by a deep humanitarian impulse. Negotiation is pointless, he says, with a nation that does not listen. The horror of the conflict reverberated around the world when Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine, leaving all 298 people on board dead. Foreign volunteers pouring in to help Ukraine fight Russia after A former banks offices and cubicles had become a training area where the Territorial Defense Force practiced room clearances. We passed sandbagged checkpoints marked by tattered Ukrainian flags, roadside crates of Molotov cocktails, and banners declaring Russian warship, go fuck yourself. Soon the bus was crawling through traffic in central Lviv, and Young began trading WhatsApp messages with his handler at the Georgia Legion. After Vjekoslavanswered, the woman said: Thank you for coming to Ukraine and protecting my homeland.. Some simply wanted to defend Ukraines territorial sovereignty. Youd better be prepared., Robinson wasnt the only foreign volunteer who shared his disillusionment with the caliber of the international force. I dont think that Ukraine would be on my radar if I hadnt gone., Youngs time in the Baltics helped him understand the long-simmering fear of Russian authoritarianism that exists in the former Soviet statesin places like Ukraine, where the threat of invasion always felt real. Ukraine legalized the service of foreigners in the regular armed forces in October 2015. After a lifetime at war, Mamulashvili believes that the war in Ukraine, especially with the looming threat of a major Russian offensive this winter, represents a crossroads in world history. In early June, two American veterans from Alabama, Alex Drueke and Andy Huynh, were captured and reportedly held by Russia-backed separatists in a skirmish outside Kharkiv. I hope its going to end here. A thin man with stringy blond hair and a blond beard sat disconsolately in a corner booth, with several empty beer bottles in front of him; Young identified him as the commander of the group that was apparently ambushed on the eastern front. These fighters belong to an outfit called the "Georgian Legion", a paramilitary unit which fights for Ukraine - and men with guns were about to depart on a mission. Ukraine appeals for foreign volunteers to join fight against Russia The new legion of foreign fighters: who are they and where do they come from? We have no weapons, no armor, and no one apparently can change these things, a Canadian comedian who traveled to Ukraine to join the conflict wrote on Twitter in March. Georgian Legion Commander in Ukraine-Russia War Calls for - Insider We still dont have weapons, and it could be a death mission. What's the least amount of exercise we can get away with? In Australia, then prime minister Scott Morrison urged citizens not to travel to Ukraine, and warned that fighting in the conflict was possibly illegal.