As of: March 8, 2024, 9:49 p.m
By: Nils Hinsberger
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Press
Split
Not only Ukrainian soldiers are fighting in the war against Russia.
A battalion of volunteers is said to consist of soldiers from more than 50 countries - and is still recruiting.
Kiev – It has now been more than two years since Russia began its war against Ukraine.
A war in which foreign soldiers and private mercenary groups play a central role.
The most prominent example is probably the Russian mercenary group Wagner, which drew attention to itself in the Ukraine war primarily through its extreme brutality.
But Russia is not the only country that relies on military personnel who are not part of the official army.
Soldiers from many different countries are also fighting for Ukraine - and they even have their own unit.
The “international legion” of the Ukrainian secret service is said to bring together volunteers from more than 50 countries to support Ukraine in the fight against Russian occupying forces.
The “International Legion” fights for Ukraine against Russia – and is recruiting volunteers
“Today, March 7, marks the anniversary of the founding of the International Legion of Defense Intelligence of Ukraine,”
Defense Express
quoted a statement from the Legion as saying.
The soldiers were actively involved in operations in the Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Zaporizhia and Donetsk regions and continued their fight against Vladimir Putin's troops.
On its website, the group of volunteers actively promotes participation in the war.
The only conditions mentioned are a minimum age of 18 years, no criminal history or chronic illnesses, good physical fitness and the ability to enter Ukraine legally.
US volunteers are fighting alongside Ukraine on the front lines.
© Twitter.com/Screenshot
An exact number of how many volunteers belong to the international legion is not yet known, reported
Deutschlandfunk
.
According to media reports, around 20,000 people had applied to volunteer in the war by May last year.
As the Legion itself announced, the group includes people from the USA, Great Britain, Australia, Denmark and various countries in Europe, Asia and South America.
“Just couldn’t stay seated” – Why do you volunteer to fight in the Ukraine war?
“From the beginning I felt that this was not just an attack on Ukraine, but on the whole of Europe,” said an unnamed young woman in an interview with
Deutschlandfunk
.
She runs a social media account for the Ukrainian military and helps supply the front-line soldiers.
She herself comes from Hungary.
“I watched it on TV at home.
And I just couldn’t sit and do nothing,” she said.
But volunteers don’t just come from abroad.
In an interview with
Ippen.Media
, Ukrainian Dimitri Cooper talked about his decision to help defend Kiev.
“At one point we even received reports of tanks in Obolon, a northern part of Kiev,” Cooper said.
“That was the point when we decided to go to Kiev.” There are no international soldiers in his battalion.
“We as battalions would be happy to accept internationalists,” he said in the interview.
But the Ukrainian government has made it difficult to recruit foreign volunteers with high bureaucratic hurdles.
(nhi)