He slid behind the wheel of the ambulance while, in the back of the vehicle, a medical worker placed a mask over her face and pumped air into her lungs. Ukraine legalized the service of foreigners in the regular armed forces in October 2015. The fee was $550, but when I told him I was going to Ukraine, the lawyer said hed do it pro bono. Robinsons Kyiv-based crew had varying degrees of experience in the armed forces, but in several weeks of training they had each morphed into ad hoc military instructors. He showed me a photo on his phone of a relative in camouflage, taken, he told me, somewhere near the front lines., The other member of the threesome was Dallas Casey, a husky, bearded 28-year-old with curly brown hair and a warm, garrulous manner. Ive got the embassy in Poland breathing down my back, trying to get me to leave, he said. They advanced purposefully, covering each other's movements. Most of its members hail from the Caucasus region, but the Georgian Legion boasts a small, but growing, contingent of other foreigners in its ranks as well. Azov, Ukraine's Most Prominent Ultranationalist Group, Sets Its Sights On U.S., Europe The political wing, called National Corps, was founded by the former commander of the Azov Battalion,. Then there were those like Michael Young, moved by a tangle of motives that he had struggled to understand: moral outrage, a thirst for adventure, a yearning for redemption. After Vjekoslavanswered, the woman said: Thank you for coming to Ukraine and protecting my homeland.. The Georgia Legion's flag hanging in the unit's base in Kyiv. John is not the only Briton to have signed up to join the conflict in Ukraine. Under the command of a former Georgian military officer named Mamuka Mamulashvili, the Georgia National Legion formerly operated as a front-line unit in the early years of the war in Ukraines eastern Donbas region. We saw a dozen or so men wearing military fatigues, laughing and chatting over the rock music, yet we also sensed the tang of pre-mission tension hanging in the air. Matthew Robinson at the Georgia Legion's headquarters in Kyiv. 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. Rather than treat Russia as a pariah, the focus should be on reintegrating it into Europe. The Georgian National Legion was officially integrated into the Kyiv Rus 25th mechanized infantry battalion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in 2016. Originally staffed by fighters from. But his path to the fight wasnt proving easy. Young, who stayed behind, told me that the pattern was typical. He requested that those who had fled the country return to fight and asked for "friends" of Ukraine to come to their aid. Instead, they decided that they would devote themselves to evacuating sick and wounded civilians from dangerous areas at the edge of Russian-controlled territory. Apply to the Embassy of Ukraine in your country with the intention to join the Foreign Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine (ask a military diplomat or Consul, contact details - on the Embassy website): There are three ways to apply: 1) come to the Embassy physically; 2) phone call; 3) write to email. Mamulashvili, the founder of the Georgia National Legion, a 44-year-old mixed martial arts fighter and veteran of the Georgia-Abkhazia and First Chechen wars, told me that Hoeft had been expelled after a Georgia Legion interviewer intuited possible ties to an extremist movement. The Georgian National Legion proudly displays pictures of its newest recruits on Facebook. All the details necessary to join a war half-a-world away were suddenly right at a prospective fighters fingertipsas were the grim reminders of the conflicts brutality, in the form of photos and footage. He is preparing to take part in the bloody conflict that has ravaged eastern Ukraine for four years. The units utility to Ukraines war effort has made it a target for Russia. In an emotional video posted to his Telegram. He was there when Putin sent his troops over the border. It remains unclear exactly how many made it into the countryand how many went home after only a few daysbut a week after the Legion was announced, the Ukrainian government claimed that 20,000 volunteers from 52 countries had applied to join its ranks. Members of the Georgia National Legion at their base in Kyiv. Logo of the International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine.png 93 136; 2 KB. Though still shadowed by its past, the battalion has cleaned up its image in recent months and this spring earned distinction and global attention for its part in holding off the Russians for weeks from inside the abandoned Azovstal Iron and Steel Worksthe huge industrial complex filled with subterranean chambers and tunnelsin the destroyed city of Mariupol. ", 'There is no difference between so-called civilians and the government'. They were leaving soon for Kyiv, one step closer to the action. Thats why were fighting., Read Next: Ukraine Requires Women To Register for Military Conscription as Russia Threat Looms. I hope its going to end here. He gave his life for a nation he had never been to before., In the weeks that followed, he grew only more resolutemore committed to the people of Ukraine. There is not an agreement that they have not broken, because the only language they understand is the bullet. Not very safe. Watson and Casey made a hasty arrangement to meet the aid worker and the injured civilians on the outskirts of town and raced out the door. Hudson Institute. Moscow denies this, but admits that Russian "volunteers" are fighting for the rebels. Georgia National Legion Ukr.png 500 500; 295 KB. Ukraine is our ally, and this is another battle of the war that started in Georgia, said Levan Fifia, 30, a Georgian army veteran of the 2008 war with Russia, as well as multinational missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, who is a Georgia National Legion volunteer. At first hed been impressed by the Georgia Legions cautious approach, he said, but now he had begun to wonder whether hed ever get close to the fight. There werent enough weapons to go around, the commander told me, and the leadership reckoned that the foreign combatants could be best employed teaching basic military skills to members of the Territorial Defense Force. Theres a few lessons you learn along the way., Mamulashvili, the Georgia Legion founder, told me that his organization imposed a three-week waiting time on fresh volunteers to allow commanders to assess their battle readiness. Ukrainian authorities have said Monday that the Georgian government is blocking a charter flight from Tbilisi to Poland that contained foreign citizens ready to fight. Known by the nom de guerre, Johnny, Aslin maintains a popular Instagram account in which he posts updates about his wartime service in the Donbas as well as advice for other foreigners interested in joining Ukraines military. A week later, Mamuka Mamulashvili and the Georgia Legion high command halted recruitment and recommended that foreign volunteers without the appropriate combat experience refrain from joining the fight on the front lines. While in Ukraine, consequently, Mamulashvili has survived multiple assassination attempts. Foreign fighters see the Georgian Legion as the true international unit In February, as Russia's invasion began, Zelensky called for "every friend of Ukraine" to join the fight. Nolan Peterson, a senior editor at Coffee or Die who has lived in Kyiv for eight years, spoke at a DC think tank conference on his front-line reporting on Russias invasion. Russia is a terrorist state, it's killing civilians in the middle of Europe, and we have to brave enough to say it. And now, with Russian forces massed on Ukraines borders threatening a full-scale invasion this winter, Mamulashvili said theres been a spike in the number of foreigners applying to the Georgia National Legion with hopes of serving in Ukraines armed forces. "My personal view is that it doesn't really matter what reasons people come for, as long as the results are valid. The Georgian Legion has been around since 2014, when 10 officers from Georgia volunteered to fight - and train Ukrainian soldiers - at the beginning of the conflict with Russia. A young official with no English stood beside Young, silently tapping out questions on Google Translate. The Russian side of the war has drawn more than 13,300 foreign fighters, of which about 12,000 are Russians. What is the purpose of your visit to Ukraine?. Zelensky's call echoes that of the Spanish Second Republic, which, when the right wing Spanish military tried to launch a coup d'etat in 1936, relied on tens of thousands of foreign volunteers in the International Brigades to fight against General Francisco Franco's professional soldiers. Have a good life. Then he returned to his booth and resumed drinking his beer, alone. The men had converted other abandoned offices into bedrooms, with sandbagged windows, army cots, piles of helmets, and a Marilyn Monroe pinup. He had served as a medic in the U.S. Army and then worked in Israel for Triple Canopy, the security group, guarding government officials. Matthew Robinson, a British veteran of the Iraq War, serves as the commander of foreign volunteers in the Georgia Legion. In an interview with the leader of the Georgian Legion, Mamuka Mamulashvili, I asked whether his men were simply mercenaries, fighting the enemy for a monthly handout. When the Russians get here our life is going to get better, Young said. After Russian forces invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the creation of an international legion that would operate as part of Ukraine's military. But it felt like progress: They would be in the line of fire, where they wanted to be. But. Humanitarian work, he wrote. Minutes later, their intermediary materialized: Bohdan Solonko, a bearded, balding man in jeans and a checked sweater. @sparkomat, Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player. As the citizen of a country that has suffered its own war in recent times, Vjekoslav said he found common cause with Ukraines fight to shake off decades of Russian overlordship. Read about our approach to external linking. On February 24, the day the Russian invasion was announced, thousands of Georgians took to the streets of the capital, Tbilisi, to protest it - with some estimates claiming that up to 30,000 . There was not only the danger of what might happen to these foreign fighters in battle, but what would happen to those who were captured. Thousands volunteer to join Ukraine's International Legion Army after appeal from Zelensky including 'several' American veterans - as locals are offered $3,300-a-month to fight 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. Matthew Robinson, Youngs Lviv-based former commander in the Georgia National Legion, was moving east to Kyiv, too. Nearly eight years later, the war is ongoing along a static, entrenched front line. When this started my heart sank. Youd better be prepared., Michael Young, the erstwhile Marine from Washington State, had, in a sense, been waiting longer than just about anybody to get to the frontto get into the fight. As it turned out, those blasts would set the tone for Youngs and Watsons first, difficult weeks in Ukrainea period characterized by the omnipresent threat of air strikes and the prevailing tedium of war.